Sample Diversity, Discriminative and Comprehensive Dictionary Learning for Face Recognition

Automatic prostate segmentation from MR images is an important task in various clinical applications such as prostate cancer staging and MR-guided radiotherapy planning. However, the large appearance and shape variations of the prostate in MR images make the segmentation problem difficult to solve. Traditional Active Shape/Appearance Model (ASM/AAM) has limited accuracy on this problem, since its basic assumption, i.e., both shape and appearance of the targeted organ follow Gaussian distributions, is invalid in prostate MR images. To this end, the authors propose a sparse dictionary learning method to model the image appearance in a nonparametric fashion and further integrate the appearance model into a deformable segmentation framework for prostate MR segmentation. To drive the deformable model for prostate segmentation, the authors propose nonparametric appearance and shape models. The nonparametric appearance model is based on a novel dictionary learning method, namely distributed discriminative dictionary (DDD) learning, which is able to capture fine distinctions in image appearance. To increase the differential power of traditional dictionary-based classification methods, the authors' DDD learning approach takes three strategies. First, two dictionaries for prostate and nonprostate tissues are built, respectively, using the discriminative features obtained from minimum redundancy maximum relevance feature selection. Second, linear discriminant analysis is employed as a linear classifier to boost the optimal separation between prostate and nonprostate tissues, based on the representation residuals from sparse representation. Third, to enhance the robustness of the authors' classification method, multiple local dictionaries are learned for local regions along the prostate boundary (each with small appearance variations), instead of learning one global classifier for the entire prostate. These discriminative dictionaries are located on different patches of the prostate surface and trained to adaptively capture the appearance in different prostate zones, thus achieving better local tissue differentiation. For each local region, multiple classifiers are trained based on the randomly selected samples and finally assembled by a specific fusion method. In addition to this nonparametric appearance model, a prostate shape model is learned from the shape statistics using a novel approach, sparse shape composition, which can model nonGaussian distributions of shape variation and regularize the 3D mesh deformation by constraining it within the observed shape subspace. The proposed method has been evaluated on two datasets consisting of T2-weighted MR prostate images. For the first (internal) dataset, the classification effectiveness of the authors' improved dictionary learning has been validated by comparing it with three other variants of traditional dictionary learning methods. The experimental results show that the authors' method yields a Dice Ratio of 89.1% compared to the manual segmentation, which is more accurate than the three state-of-the-art MR prostate segmentation methods under comparison. For the second dataset, the MICCAI 2012 challenge dataset, the authors' proposed method yields a Dice Ratio of 87.4%, which also achieves better segmentation accuracy than other methods under comparison. A new magnetic resonance image prostate segmentation method is proposed based on the combination of deformable model and dictionary learning methods, which achieves more accurate segmentation performance on prostate T2 MR images.

We address the problem of sparse channel representation for downlink channel estimation in multi-user frequency division duplexing (FDD) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Existing methods typically adopt discrete Fourier transform (DFT) matrix as a sparse basis to represent sparse channels. However, a sparse basis constructed through dictionary learning method has proven to have strong sparse channel representation. In this work, we develop a discriminative dictionary learning-based sparse channel representation for downlink channel estimation in a multi-user FDD massive MIMO systems. Considering partially shared support between near users, we present a new discriminative dictionary learning (DDL) method for sparse channel representation, based on which the channel estimation scheme is developed. Compared with learning a shared dictionary for all users, it can provide a better representation, thus improving the performance of recovery in the compressive sensing process. Numerical results demonstrate the superior performance of discriminative dictionary as compared to the shared dictionary in terms of normalized mean square error (NMSE) and symbol error rate (SER).

Dictionary learning (DL) technique has received a great interest recently, due to its significant role in feature extraction. Although many DL‐based methods have been presented, some of them still suffer from the lack of discriminative features, especially for the local manifold features. To mitigate this problem, the authors propose a novel DL method named low‐rank representation based on twin tensor kernel (LRR‐TTK) DL for face recognition in this study. Specifically, the training samples are projected to a high‐dimensional space with TTK. Then, they extract the local manifold features and spatial features (representation coefficients) hidden in the facial images by TT locality preserving projection. In addition, powered by LRR reconstruction and DL theory, much more discriminative features are obtained, which can improve the recognition rate greatly. Comprehensive experimental results at AR, extended Yale‐B and FERET face databases demonstrate the superiority of their proposed method.

Mutually exclusive-KSVD: Learning a discriminative dictionary for hyperspectral image classification

Although the object detection and recognition has received growing attention for decades, a robust fire and flame detection method is rarely explored. This paper presents a novel solid solution based on sparse representation with spatial pyramid pooling. Traditional sparse representation, as one of prevalent feature learning methods, is successfully applied for object detection. But it has some intrinsic defects. Firstly, it requires fixed input image size. Secondly, the accuracy of detection heavily depends on discriminative dictionary learning and feature coding. At last, it is usually very time-consuming. In this paper, we have proposed a novel dictionary learning method with the structure sparsity constraint to train a discriminative dictionary. In feature coding stage, we compute sparse codes of each patch with dictionaries learned from data and pool them to form local histogram in spatial pyramid manner. At lat, the feature vector is pipelined into a linear SVM classifier to train the model. For improving the efficiency, we also adopt the selective search approach to generate the candidate region proposals in the preprocessing stage. In processing test images, our method achieved better or comparable accuracy to the state-of-the-art on FlameDetection2010 Dataset.

Sample diversity, representation effectiveness and robust dictionary learning for face recognition

By finding broader temporal and spatial patterns of brain activity, dictionary learning and sparse coding techniques circumvent the constraints of typical voxel-level studies of task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Prior applications of these algorithms to task-related fMRI data, on the other hand, have not been tuned to simultaneously uncover temporal patterns of activity that change in tandem with changes in task circumstances and spatial patterns that exploit existing neuroscience knowledge. This work, presents a sparse dictionary learning method that decomposes fMRI data into temporal patterns of signals that loosely differ between task conditions and sparse spatial patterns that are at least partially similar to known functional network hubs, based on prior knowledge of the temporal pattern of task conditions and the locations of brain regions hypothesized to be involved in the task. To over come the a major drawback of the prior work in terms being constrained to provide an equal number of spatial and temporal patterns, even when the data was more accurately represented by a larger number spatial than temporal patterns (or vice versa), this work also propose a constrained decoupled dictionary learning method that uses prior knowledge related to task paradigms and the spatial locations of task-related brain regions to estimate decoupled spatial and temporal patterns that represent the fMRI data. The utility of sparse dictionary learning methods applied to task fMRI data is increased by simultaneously exploiting the task's known temporal structure and biasing solutions towards putative network hubs. The method identifies a high percentage of the spatial and temporal patterns programmed into simulated fMRI data. The temporal and spatial patterns are identified using an effective on-line optimization methodology. The technique detects geographical and temporal patterns in synthetic task fMRI data. When applied to two real-world fMRI data sets, the method: 1. automatically identifies temporal and spatial patterns that were known by neuroscientists to be task-related a priori but were not provided as inputs to the method; 2. provides measurements that differ significantly between differing tasks. When applied to real fMRI data from 100 participants two different studies, the suggested method also identifies geographic regions known a priori to be engaged by the Attention Network Task (ANT), AX-Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT) and Stroop Task more thoroughly than competing methods. Using task information to partially constrain dictionary learning allowed this method to identify task related networks in real and synthetic fMRI data.

Sparse representation based classification has led to interesting image recognition results, while the dictionary used for sparse coding plays a key role in it. This paper presents a novel dictionary learning (DL) method to improve the pattern classification performance. Based on the Fisher discrimination criterion, a structured dictionary, whose dictionary atoms have correspondence to the class labels, is learned so that the reconstruction error after sparse coding can be used for pattern classification. Meanwhile, the Fisher discrimination criterion is imposed on the coding coefficients so that they have small within-class scatter but big between-class scatter. A new classification scheme associated with the proposed Fisher discrimination DL (FDDL) method is then presented by using both the discriminative information in the reconstruction error and sparse coding coefficients. The proposed FDDL is extensively evaluated on benchmark image databases in comparison with existing sparse representation and DL based classification methods.

In this paper, we propose a simultaneous feature and dictionary learning (SFDL) method for image set based face recognition, where each training and testing example contains a face image set captured from different poses, illuminations, expressions and resolutions. While several feature learning and dictionary learning methods have been proposed for image set based face recognition in recent years, most of them learn the features and dictionaries separately, which may not be powerful enough because some discriminative information for dictionary learning may be compromised in the feature learning stage if they are applied sequentially, and vice versa. To address this, we propose a SFDL method to learn discriminative features and dictionaries simultaneously from raw face images so that discriminative information can be jointly exploited. Extensive experimental results on four widely used face datasets show that our method achieves better performance than state-of-the-art image set based face recognition methods.KeywordsFace recognitionimage setfeature learningdictionary learningsimultaneous learning

Dictionary learning (DL) techniques aim to find sparse signal representations that capture prominent characteristics in a given data. Such methods operate on a data matrix $Y\in \mathbb {R}^{N\times M}$ , where each of its columns $y_i\in \mathbb {R}^N$ constitutes a training sample, and these columns together represent a sampling from the data manifold. For signals $y\in \mathbb {R}^N$ residing on weighted graphs, an additional challenge is incorporating the underlying geometric structure of the data domain into the learning process. In such cases, the topological graph structure may provide a crucial interpretation for the columns, while the data manifold itself may also possess a low-dimensional intrinsic structure that should be taken into account. In this work, we propose a novel dictionary learning algorithm for graph signals that simultaneously takes into account the underlying structure in both the signal and the manifold domains. Specifically, we require that the dictionary atoms are smooth with respect to the graph topology, as encapsulated by the graph Laplacian matrix. Furthermore, we propose to learn this graph Laplacian within the dictionary learning process, adapting it to promote the desired smoothness. Utilizing the manifold structure, we propose to encourage the smoothness of the sparse representations on the data manifold in a similar manner. Both these smoothness forces implicitly enhance the learned dictionary. The efficiency of the proposed approach is demonstrated on synthetic examples as well as on real data, showing that it outperforms other dictionary learning methods in typical problems such as resistance to noise and data completion.

Discriminative dictionary learning, playing a critical role in sparse representation based classification, has led to state-of-the-art classification results. Among the existing discriminative dictionary learning methods, two different approaches, shared dictionary and class-specific dictionary, which associate each dictionary atom to all classes or a single class, have been studied. The shared dictionary is a compact method but with lack of discriminative information; the class-specific dictionary contains discriminative information but consists of redundant atoms among different class dictionaries. To combine the advantages of both methods, we propose a new weighted block dictionary learning method. This method introduces proto dictionary and class dictionary. The proto dictionary is a base dictionary without label information. The class dictionary is a class-specific dictionary, which is a weighted proto dictionary. The weight value indicates the contribution of each proto dictionary block when constructing a class dictionary. These weight values can be computed conveniently as they are designed to adapt sparse coefficients. Different class dictionaries have different weight vectors but share the same proto dictionary, which results in higher discriminative power and lower redundancy. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has better classification results compared with several dictionary learning algorithms.

Histopathological image contains rich pathological information that is valued for the aided diagnosis of many diseases such as cancer. An important issue in histopathological image classification is how to learn a high-quality discriminative dictionary due to diverse tissue pattern, a variety of texture, and different morphologies structure. In this paper, we propose a discriminative dictionary learning algorithm with pairwise local constraints (PLCDDL) for histopathological image classification. Inspired by the one-to-one mapping between dictionary atom and profile, we learn a pair of discriminative graph Laplacian matrices that are less sensitive to noise or outliers to capture the locality and discriminating information of data manifold by utilizing the local geometry information of category-specific dictionaries rather than input data. Furthermore, graph-based pairwise local constraints are designed and incorporated into the original dictionary learning model to effectively encode the locality consistency with intra-class samples and the locality inconsistency with inter-class samples. Specifically, we learn the discriminative localities for representations by jointly optimizing both the intra-class locality and inter-class locality, which can significantly improve the discriminability and robustness of dictionary. Extensive experiments on the challenging datasets verify that the proposed PLCDDL algorithm can achieve a better classification accuracy and powerful robustness compared with the state-of-the-art dictionary learning methods. Graphical abstract The proposed PLCDDL algorithm. 1) A pair of graph Laplacian matrices are first learned based on the class-specific dictionaries. 2) Graph-based pairwise local constraints are designed to transfer the locality for coding coefficients. 3) Class-specific dictionaries can be further updated.

Bayesian dictionary learning for hyperspectral image super resolution in mixed Poisson–Gaussian noise

An automatic segmentation method of hippo-campus for volume measurement in MR brain images by using sparse patch representation and discriminative dictionary learning is proposed in this paper, which can overcome the limitation of multi-atlas approaches that mostly rely on similarity between target image and atlases for more accurate segmentation. In the proposed method, atlases are registered to a target image, then patch-based features including intensity and gradient are extracted from registered atlases for a dictionary learning model, from which dictionaries and classifiers are learned simultaneously. The label for voxels in the target image is determined via solving sparse representation of target patch over learned dictionary. Performance of the proposed method is evaluated on 30 subjects from the public dataset CIND by cross validation. Qualitative and quantitative comparisons illustrate that the proposed method is competitive compared with state-of-the-art approaches based on multi-atlas.

Fruit cracking and rust spots are common diseases of nectarines that seriously affect their yield and quality. Therefore, it is essential to construct fast and accurate disease-identification models for agricultural products. In this paper, a sparse dictionary learning method was proposed to realize the rapid and nondestructive identification of nectarine disease based on multiple color features combined with improved LK-SVD (Label K-Singular Value Decomposition). According to the color characteristics of the nectarine itself and the significant color differences existing in the three categories of nectarine (diseased, normal, and background parts), multiple color spaces of RGB, HSV, Lab, and YCbCr were studied. It was concluded that the G channel in RGB space, Y channel in YCbCr space, and L channel in Lab space can better distinguish the diseased part from the other parts. At the model-training stage, pixels of the diseased, normal, and background parts in the nectarine image were randomly selected as the initial training sets, and then, the neighboring image blocks of the pixels were selected to construct the feature vectors based on the above color space channels. An improved LK-SVD dictionary learning algorithm was proposed that integrated the category label into the process of dictionary learning, and thus, an over-complete feature dictionary with significant discrimination was obtained. At the model-testing stage, the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm was used for sparse reconstruction of the original data, which can obtain the classification categories based on the optimized feature dictionary. The experimental results show that the sparse dictionary learning method based on multi-color features combined with improved LK-SVD can identify fruit cracking and rust spot diseases of nectarines quickly and accurately, and the average overall classification accuracies were 92.06% and 88.98%, respectively, which were better than those of k-nearest neighbor (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), DeepLabV3+, and Unet++; the identification results of DeepLabV3+ and Unet++ were also relatively high, but their average time costs were much higher, requiring 126.46~265.65 s. It is demonstrated that this study can provide technical support for disease identification in agricultural products.