Publications | Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

2012

mms Straumal, B. B., Mazilkin, A. A., Baretzky, B., Schütz, G., Rabkin, E., Valiev, R. Z. Accelerated diffusion and phase transformations in Co-Cu alloys driven by the severe plastic deformation {Special Issue on Advanced Materials Science in Bulk Nanostructured Metals}, 53(1):63-71, 2012 (article)

Unusual flux jumps above 12 K in non-homogeneous MgB2 thin films

Treiber, S., Stahl, C., Schütz, G., Albrecht, J.

{Superconductor Science \& Technology}, 25, 2012 (article)

mms

mms Treiber, S., Stahl, C., Schütz, G., Albrecht, J. Unusual flux jumps above 12 K in non-homogeneous MgB2 thin films {Superconductor Science \& Technology}, 25, 2012 (article)

Ferromagnetism of nanostructured zinc oxide films

Straumal, B. B., Mazilkin, A. A., Protasova, S. G., Straumal, P. B., Myatiev, A. A., Schütz, G., Goering, E., Baretzky, B.

{The Physics of Metals and Metallography}, 113(13):1244-1256, 2012 (article)

mms

mms Straumal, B. B., Mazilkin, A. A., Protasova, S. G., Straumal, P. B., Myatiev, A. A., Schütz, G., Goering, E., Baretzky, B. Ferromagnetism of nanostructured zinc oxide films {The Physics of Metals and Metallography}, 113(13):1244-1256, 2012 (article)

Frequencies and polarization vectors of phonons: Results from force constants which are fitted to experimental data or calculated ab initio

Illg, C., Meyer, B., Fähnle, M.

{Physical Review B}, 86(17), Published by the American Physical Society through the American Institute of Physics, Woodbury, NY, 2012 (article)

mms

mms Illg, C., Meyer, B., Fähnle, M. Frequencies and polarization vectors of phonons: Results from force constants which are fitted to experimental data or calculated ab initio {Physical Review B}, 86(17), Published by the American Physical Society through the American Institute of Physics, Woodbury, NY, 2012 (article)

Grain boundary wetting by a second solid phase in the Zr-Nb alloys

Straumal, B. B., Gornakova, A. S., Kucheev, Y. O., Baretzky, B., Nekrasov, A. N.

{Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance}, 21(5):721-724, 2012 (article)

mms

mms Straumal, B. B., Gornakova, A. S., Kucheev, Y. O., Baretzky, B., Nekrasov, A. N. Grain boundary wetting by a second solid phase in the Zr-Nb alloys {Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance}, 21(5):721-724, 2012 (article)

Grain boundary wetting in the NdFeB-based hard magnetic alloys

Straumal, B. B., Kucheev, Y. O., Yatskovskaya, I. L., Mogilnikova, I. V., Schütz, G., Nekrasov, A. N., Baretzky, B.

{Journal of Materials Science}, 47(24):8352-8359, 2012 (article)

mms

mms Straumal, B. B., Kucheev, Y. O., Yatskovskaya, I. L., Mogilnikova, I. V., Schütz, G., Nekrasov, A. N., Baretzky, B. Grain boundary wetting in the NdFeB-based hard magnetic alloys {Journal of Materials Science}, 47(24):8352-8359, 2012 (article)

pdf sup mat poster Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

Layered segmentation and optical flow estimation over time

Sun, D., Sudderth, E., Black, M. J.

In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pages: 1768-1775, IEEE, 2012 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Layered models provide a compelling approach for estimating image motion and segmenting moving scenes. Previous methods, however, have failed to capture the structure of complex scenes, provide precise object boundaries, effectively estimate the number of layers in a scene, or robustly determine the depth order of the layers. Furthermore, previous methods have focused on optical flow between pairs of frames rather than longer sequences. We show that image sequences with more frames are needed to resolve ambiguities in depth ordering at occlusion boundaries; temporal layer constancy makes this feasible. Our generative model of image sequences is rich but difficult to optimize with traditional gradient descent methods. We propose a novel discrete approximation of the continuous objective in terms of a sequence of depth-ordered MRFs and extend graph-cut optimization methods with new “moves” that make joint layer segmentation and motion estimation feasible. Our optimizer, which mixes discrete and continuous optimization, automatically determines the number of layers and reasons about their depth ordering. We demonstrate the value of layered models, our optimization strategy, and the use of more than two frames on both the Middlebury optical flow benchmark and the MIT layer segmentation benchmark.

ps Sun, D., Sudderth, E., Black, M. J. Layered segmentation and optical flow estimation over time In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pages: 1768-1775, IEEE, 2012 (inproceedings)

pdf sup mat poster Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

Towards Associative Skill Memories

Pastor, P., Kalakrishnan, M., Righetti, L., Schaal, S.

In 2012 12th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids 2012), pages: 309-315, IEEE, Osaka, Japan, November 2012 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Movement primitives as basis of movement planning and control have become a popular topic in recent years. The key idea of movement primitives is that a rather small set of stereotypical movements should suffice to create a large set of complex manipulation skills. An interesting side effect of stereotypical movement is that it also creates stereotypical sensory events, e.g., in terms of kinesthetic variables, haptic variables, or, if processed appropriately, visual variables. Thus, a movement primitive executed towards a particular object in the environment will associate a large number of sensory variables that are typical for this manipulation skill. These association can be used to increase robustness towards perturbations, and they also allow failure detection and switching towards other behaviors. We call such movement primitives augmented with sensory associations Associative Skill Memories (ASM). This paper addresses how ASMs can be acquired by imitation learning and how they can create robust manipulation skill by determining subsequent ASMs online to achieve a particular manipulation goal. Evaluation for grasping and manipulation with a Barrett WAM/Hand illustrate our approach.

am mg

am mg Pastor, P., Kalakrishnan, M., Righetti, L., Schaal, S. Towards Associative Skill Memories In 2012 12th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids 2012), pages: 309-315, IEEE, Osaka, Japan, November 2012 (inproceedings)

Template-based learning of grasp selection

Herzog, A., Pastor, P., Kalakrishnan, M., Righetti, L., Asfour, T., Schaal, S.

In 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages: 2379-2384, IEEE, Saint Paul, USA, 2012 (inproceedings)

Abstract

The ability to grasp unknown objects is an important skill for personal robots, which has been addressed by many present and past research projects, but still remains an open problem. A crucial aspect of grasping is choosing an appropriate grasp configuration, i.e. the 6d pose of the hand relative to the object and its finger configuration. Finding feasible grasp configurations for novel objects, however, is challenging because of the huge variety in shape and size of these objects. Moreover, possible configurations also depend on the specific kinematics of the robotic arm and hand in use. In this paper, we introduce a new grasp selection algorithm able to find object grasp poses based on previously demonstrated grasps. Assuming that objects with similar shapes can be grasped in a similar way, we associate to each demonstrated grasp a grasp template. The template is a local shape descriptor for a possible grasp pose and is constructed using 3d information from depth sensors. For each new object to grasp, the algorithm then finds the best grasp candidate in the library of templates. The grasp selection is also able to improve over time using the information of previous grasp attempts to adapt the ranking of the templates. We tested the algorithm on two different platforms, the Willow Garage PR2 and the Barrett WAM arm which have very different hands. Our results show that the algorithm is able to find good grasp configurations for a large set of objects from a relatively small set of demonstrations, and does indeed improve its performance over time.

am mg

am mg Herzog, A., Pastor, P., Kalakrishnan, M., Righetti, L., Asfour, T., Schaal, S. Template-based learning of grasp selection In 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages: 2379-2384, IEEE, Saint Paul, USA, 2012 (inproceedings)

Reinforcement Learning with Sequences of Motion Primitives for Robust Manipulation

Stulp, F., Theodorou, E., Schaal, S.

IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2012 (article)

am Stulp, F., Theodorou, E., Schaal, S. Reinforcement Learning with Sequences of Motion Primitives for Robust Manipulation IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2012 (article)

Impact and Surface Tension in Water: a Study of Landing Bodies

Shih, B., Laham, L., Lee, K. J., Krasnoff, N., Diller, E., Sitti, M.

Bio-inspired Robotics Final Project, Carnegie Mellon University, 2012 (article)

pi Shih, B., Laham, L., Lee, K. J., Krasnoff, N., Diller, E., Sitti, M. Impact and Surface Tension in Water: a Study of Landing Bodies Bio-inspired Robotics Final Project, Carnegie Mellon University, 2012 (article)

Design and rolling locomotion of a magnetically actuated soft capsule endoscope

Yim, S., Sitti, M.

IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 28(1):183-194, IEEE, 2012 (article)

pi Yim, S., Sitti, M. Design and rolling locomotion of a magnetically actuated soft capsule endoscope IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 28(1):183-194, IEEE, 2012 (article)

Design and manufacturing of a controllable miniature flapping wing robotic platform

Arabagi, V., Hines, L., Sitti, M.

The International Journal of Robotics Research, 31(6):785-800, SAGE Publications Sage UK: London, England, 2012 (article)

pi Arabagi, V., Hines, L., Sitti, M. Design and manufacturing of a controllable miniature flapping wing robotic platform The International Journal of Robotics Research, 31(6):785-800, SAGE Publications Sage UK: London, England, 2012 (article)

Chemotactic steering of bacteria propelled microbeads

Kim, D., Liu, A., Diller, E., Sitti, M.

Biomedical microdevices, 14(6):1009-1017, Springer US, 2012 (article)

pi Kim, D., Liu, A., Diller, E., Sitti, M. Chemotactic steering of bacteria propelled microbeads Biomedical microdevices, 14(6):1009-1017, Springer US, 2012 (article)

Probabilistic depth image registration incorporating nonvisual information

Wüthrich, M., Pastor, P., Righetti, L., Billard, A., Schaal, S.

In 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages: 3637-3644, IEEE, Saint Paul, USA, 2012 (inproceedings)

Abstract

In this paper, we derive a probabilistic registration algorithm for object modeling and tracking. In many robotics applications, such as manipulation tasks, nonvisual information about the movement of the object is available, which we will combine with the visual information. Furthermore we do not only consider observations of the object, but we also take space into account which has been observed to not be part of the object. Furthermore we are computing a posterior distribution over the relative alignment and not a point estimate as typically done in for example Iterative Closest Point (ICP). To our knowledge no existing algorithm meets these three conditions and we thus derive a novel registration algorithm in a Bayesian framework. Experimental results suggest that the proposed methods perform favorably in comparison to PCL [1] implementations of feature mapping and ICP, especially if nonvisual information is available.

am mg

am mg Wüthrich, M., Pastor, P., Righetti, L., Billard, A., Schaal, S. Probabilistic depth image registration incorporating nonvisual information In 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages: 3637-3644, IEEE, Saint Paul, USA, 2012 (inproceedings)

Directing neural stem cell differentiation using nanopatterned substrates and visualization of the developing nervous system

Gojak, Christian

Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, 2012 (phdthesis)

mms

link (url) [BibTex]

mms Gojak, Christian Directing neural stem cell differentiation using nanopatterned substrates and visualization of the developing nervous system Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, 2012 (phdthesis)

link (url) [BibTex]

Hartmagnetische L10-FePt basierte gro\ssflächige Nanomuster mittels Nanoimprint-Lithografie

Bublat, T.

Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, 2012 (phdthesis)

mms

mms Bublat, T. Hartmagnetische L10-FePt basierte gro\ssflächige Nanomuster mittels Nanoimprint-Lithografie Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, 2012 (phdthesis)

Magnetic proximity effect in YBa2Cu3O7 / La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 and YBa2Cu3O7 / LaMnO3+δsuperlattices

Satapathy, D. K., Uribe-Laverde, M. A., Marozau, I., Malik, V. K., Das, S., Wagner, T., Marcelot, C., Stahn, J., Brück, S., Rühm, A., Macke, S., Tietze, T., Goering, E., Frañó, A., Kim, J., Wu, M., Benckiser, E., Keimer, B., Devishvili, A., Toperverg, B. P., Merz, M., Nagel, P., Schuppler, S., Bernhard, C.

{Physical Review Letters}, 108, 2012 (article)

mms

mms Satapathy, D. K., Uribe-Laverde, M. A., Marozau, I., Malik, V. K., Das, S., Wagner, T., Marcelot, C., Stahn, J., Brück, S., Rühm, A., Macke, S., Tietze, T., Goering, E., Frañó, A., Kim, J., Wu, M., Benckiser, E., Keimer, B., Devishvili, A., Toperverg, B. P., Merz, M., Nagel, P., Schuppler, S., Bernhard, C. Magnetic proximity effect in YBa2Cu3O7 / La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 and YBa2Cu3O7 / LaMnO3+δsuperlattices {Physical Review Letters}, 108, 2012 (article)

Structural and chemical characterization on the nanoscale

Stierle, A., Carstanjen, H.-D., Hofmann, S.

In Nanoelectronics and Information Technology. Advanced Electronic Materials and Novel Devices, pages: 233-254, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2012 (incollection)

mms

mms Stierle, A., Carstanjen, H.-D., Hofmann, S. Structural and chemical characterization on the nanoscale In Nanoelectronics and Information Technology. Advanced Electronic Materials and Novel Devices, pages: 233-254, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2012 (incollection)

Noble gases and microporous frameworks; from interaction to application

Soleimani Dorcheh, A., Denysenko, D., Volkmer, D., Donner, W., Hirscher, M.

{Microporous and Mesoporous Materials}, 162, pages: 64-68, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2012 (article)

mms

mms Soleimani Dorcheh, A., Denysenko, D., Volkmer, D., Donner, W., Hirscher, M. Noble gases and microporous frameworks; from interaction to application {Microporous and Mesoporous Materials}, 162, pages: 64-68, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2012 (article)

Note: Unique characterization possibilities in the ultra high vacuum scanning transmission x-ray microscope (UHV-STXM) "MAXYMUS" using a rotatable permanent magnetic field up to 0.22 T

Nolle, D., Weigand, M., Audehm, P., Goering, E., Wiesemann, U., Wolter, C., Nolle, E., Schütz, G.

{Review of Scientific Instruments}, 83(4), 2012 (article)

mms

mms Nolle, D., Weigand, M., Audehm, P., Goering, E., Wiesemann, U., Wolter, C., Nolle, E., Schütz, G. Note: Unique characterization possibilities in the ultra high vacuum scanning transmission x-ray microscope (UHV-STXM) "MAXYMUS" using a rotatable permanent magnetic field up to 0.22 T {Review of Scientific Instruments}, 83(4), 2012 (article)

Rutherford Backscattering

Carstanjen, H. D.

In Nanoelectronics and Information Technology. Advanced Electronic Materials and Novel Devices, pages: 250-252, WILEY-VCH Verlag, Weinheim, Germany, 2012 (incollection)

mms

mms Carstanjen, H. D. Rutherford Backscattering In Nanoelectronics and Information Technology. Advanced Electronic Materials and Novel Devices, pages: 250-252, WILEY-VCH Verlag, Weinheim, Germany, 2012 (incollection)

Microstructure and superconducting properties of MgB2 films prepared by solid state reaction of multilayer precursors of the elements

Kugler, B., Stahl, C., Treiber, S., Soltan, S., Haug, S., Schütz, G., Albrecht, J.

{Thin Solid Films}, 520, pages: 6985-6988, 2012 (article)

mms

mms Kugler, B., Stahl, C., Treiber, S., Soltan, S., Haug, S., Schütz, G., Albrecht, J. Microstructure and superconducting properties of MgB2 films prepared by solid state reaction of multilayer precursors of the elements {Thin Solid Films}, 520, pages: 6985-6988, 2012 (article)

workshop publisher's site [BibTex]

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 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]

Spatial Measures between Human Poses for Classification and Understanding

Soren Hauberg, Kim S. Pedersen

In Articulated Motion and Deformable Objects, 7378, pages: 26-36, LNCS, (Editors: Perales, Francisco J. and Fisher, Robert B. and Moeslund, Thomas B.), Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2012 (inproceedings)

Publishers site Project Page [BibTex]

ps Soren Hauberg, Kim S. Pedersen Spatial Measures between Human Poses for Classification and Understanding In Articulated Motion and Deformable Objects, 7378, pages: 26-36, LNCS, (Editors: Perales, Francisco J. and Fisher, Robert B. and Moeslund, Thomas B.), Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2012 (inproceedings)

Publishers site Project Page [BibTex]

A Geometric Take on Metric Learning

Hauberg, S., Freifeld, O., Black, M. J.

In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) 25, pages: 2033-2041, (Editors: P. Bartlett and F.C.N. Pereira and C.J.C. Burges and L. Bottou and K.Q. Weinberger), MIT Press, 2012 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Multi-metric learning techniques learn local metric tensors in different parts of a feature space. With such an approach, even simple classifiers can be competitive with the state-of-the-art because the distance measure locally adapts to the structure of the data. The learned distance measure is, however, non-metric, which has prevented multi-metric learning from generalizing to tasks such as dimensionality reduction and regression in a principled way. We prove that, with appropriate changes, multi-metric learning corresponds to learning the structure of a Riemannian manifold. We then show that this structure gives us a principled way to perform dimensionality reduction and regression according to the learned metrics. Algorithmically, we provide the first practical algorithm for computing geodesics according to the learned metrics, as well as algorithms for computing exponential and logarithmic maps on the Riemannian manifold. Together, these tools let many Euclidean algorithms take advantage of multi-metric learning. We illustrate the approach on regression and dimensionality reduction tasks that involve predicting measurements of the human body from shape data.

PDF Youtube Suppl. material Poster Project Page [BibTex]

ps Hauberg, S., Freifeld, O., Black, M. J. A Geometric Take on Metric Learning In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) 25, pages: 2033-2041, (Editors: P. Bartlett and F.C.N. Pereira and C.J.C. Burges and L. Bottou and K.Q. Weinberger), MIT Press, 2012 (inproceedings)

PDF Youtube Suppl. material Poster Project Page [BibTex]

2004

Attentional Modulation of Auditory Event-Related Potentials in a Brain-Computer Interface

Hill, J., Lal, T., Bierig, K., Birbaumer, N., Schölkopf, B.

In BioCAS04, (S3/5/INV- S3/17-20):4, IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, CA, USA, 2004 IEEE International Workshop on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, December 2004 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Motivated by the particular problems involved in communicating with "locked-in" paralysed patients, we aim to develop a brain-computer interface that uses auditory stimuli. We describe a paradigm that allows a user to make a binary decision by focusing attention on one of two concurrent auditory stimulus sequences. Using Support Vector Machine classification and Recursive Channel Elimination on the independent components of averaged event-related potentials, we show that an untrained user‘s EEG data can be classified with an encouragingly high level of accuracy. This suggests that it is possible for users to modulate EEG signals in a single trial by the conscious direction of attention, well enough to be useful in BCI.

PDF Web DOI [BibTex]

2004

ei Hill, J., Lal, T., Bierig, K., Birbaumer, N., Schölkopf, B. Attentional Modulation of Auditory Event-Related Potentials in a Brain-Computer Interface In BioCAS04, (S3/5/INV- S3/17-20):4, IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, CA, USA, 2004 IEEE International Workshop on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, December 2004 (inproceedings)

PDF Web DOI [BibTex]

On the representation, learning and transfer of spatio-temporal movement characteristics

Ilg, W., Bakir, GH., Mezger, J., Giese, M.

International Journal of Humanoid Robotics, 1(4):613-636, December 2004 (article)

ei Ilg, W., Bakir, GH., Mezger, J., Giese, M. On the representation, learning and transfer of spatio-temporal movement characteristics International Journal of Humanoid Robotics, 1(4):613-636, December 2004 (article)

Insect-inspired estimation of egomotion

Franz, MO., Chahl, JS., Krapp, HG.

Neural Computation, 16(11):2245-2260, November 2004 (article)

Abstract

Tangential neurons in the fly brain are sensitive to the typical optic flow patterns generated during egomotion. In this study, we examine whether a simplified linear model based on the organization principles in tangential neurons can be used to estimate egomotion from the optic flow. We present a theory for the construction of an estimator consisting of a linear combination of optic flow vectors that incorporates prior knowledge both about the distance distribution of the environment, and about the noise and egomotion statistics of the sensor. The estimator is tested on a gantry carrying an omnidirectional vision sensor. The experiments show that the proposed approach leads to accurate and robust estimates of rotation rates, whereas translation estimates are of reasonable quality, albeit less reliable.

PDF PostScript Web DOI [BibTex]

ei Franz, MO., Chahl, JS., Krapp, HG. Insect-inspired estimation of egomotion Neural Computation, 16(11):2245-2260, November 2004 (article)

PDF PostScript Web DOI [BibTex]

Efficient face detection by a cascaded support-vector machine expansion

Romdhani, S., Torr, P., Schölkopf, B., Blake, A.

Proceedings of The Royal Society of London A, 460(2501):3283-3297, A, November 2004 (article)

Abstract

We describe a fast system for the detection and localization of human faces in images using a nonlinear ‘support-vector machine‘. We approximate the decision surface in terms of a reduced set of expansion vectors and propose a cascaded evaluation which has the property that the full support-vector expansion is only evaluated on the face-like parts of the image, while the largest part of typical images is classified using a single expansion vector (a simpler and more efficient classifier). As a result, only three reduced-set vectors are used, on average, to classify an image patch. Hence, the cascaded evaluation, presented in this paper, offers a thirtyfold speed-up over an evaluation using the full set of reduced-set vectors, which is itself already thirty times faster than classification using all the support vectors.

PDF DOI [BibTex]

ei Romdhani, S., Torr, P., Schölkopf, B., Blake, A. Efficient face detection by a cascaded support-vector machine expansion Proceedings of The Royal Society of London A, 460(2501):3283-3297, A, November 2004 (article)

PDF DOI [BibTex]

Joint Kernel Maps

Weston, J., Schölkopf, B., Bousquet, O., Mann, .., Noble, W.

(131), Max-Planck-Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, November 2004 (techreport)

ei Weston, J., Schölkopf, B., Bousquet, O., Mann, .., Noble, W. Joint Kernel Maps (131), Max-Planck-Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, November 2004 (techreport)

How to learn from very few examples?

Zhou, D.

October 2004 (talk)

ei Zhou, D. How to learn from very few examples? October 2004 (talk)

Discrete vs. Continuous: Two Sides of Machine Learning

Zhou, D.

October 2004 (talk)

ei Zhou, D. Discrete vs. Continuous: Two Sides of Machine Learning October 2004 (talk)

Discrete vs. Continuous: Two Sides of Machine Learning

Zhou, D.

October 2004 (talk)

Abstract

We consider the problem of transductive inference. In many real-world problems, unlabeled data is far easier to obtain than labeled data. Hence transductive inference is very significant in many practical problems. According to Vapnik's point of view, one should predict the function value only on the given points directly rather than a function defined on the whole space, the latter being a more complicated problem. Inspired by this idea, we develop discrete calculus on finite discrete spaces, and then build discrete regularization. A family of transductive algorithms is naturally derived from this regularization framework. We validate the algorithms on both synthetic and real-world data from text/web categorization to bioinformatics problems. A significant by-product of this work is a powerful way of ranking data based on examples including images, documents, proteins and many other kinds of data. This talk is mainly based on the followiing contribution: (1) D. Zhou and B. Sch{\"o}lkopf: Transductive Inference with Graphs, MPI Technical report, August, 2004; (2) D. Zhou, B. Sch{\"o}lkopf and T. Hofmann. Semi-supervised Learning on Directed Graphs. NIPS 2004; (3) D. Zhou, O. Bousquet, T.N. Lal, J. Weston and B. Sch{\"o}lkopf. Learning with Local and Global Consistency. NIPS 2003.

ei Zhou, D. Discrete vs. Continuous: Two Sides of Machine Learning October 2004 (talk)

S-cones contribute to flicker brightness in human vision

Wehrhahn, C., Hill, NJ., Dillenburger, B.

34(174.12), 34th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (Neuroscience), October 2004 (poster)

Abstract

In the retina of primates three cone types sensitive to short, middle and long wavelengths of light convert photons into electrical signals. Many investigators have presented evidence that, in color normal observers, the signals of cones sensitive to short wavelengths of light (S-cones) do not contribute to the perception of brightness of a colored surface when this is alternated with an achromatic reference (flicker brightness). Other studies indicate that humans do use S-cone signals when performing this task. Common to all these studies is the small number of observers, whose performance data are reported. Considerable variability in the occurrence of cone types across observers has been found, but, to our knowledge, no cone counts exist from larger populations of humans. We reinvestigated how much the S-cones contribute to flicker brightness. 76 color normal observers were tested in a simple psychophysical procedure neutral to the cone type occurence (Teufel & Wehrhahn (2000), JOSA A 17: 994 - 1006). The data show that, in the majority of our observers, S-cones provide input with a negative sign - relative to L- and M-cone contribution - in the task in question. There is indeed considerable between-subject variability such that for 20 out of 76 observers the magnitude of this input does not differ significantly from 0. Finally, we argue that the sign of S-cone contribution to flicker brightness perception by an observer cannot be used to infer the relative sign their contributions to the neuronal signals carrying the information leading to the perception of flicker brightness. We conclude that studies which use only a small number of observers may easily fail to find significant evidence for the small but significant population tendency for the S-cones to contribute to flicker brightness. Our results confirm all earlier results and reconcile their contradictory interpretations.

ei Wehrhahn, C., Hill, NJ., Dillenburger, B. S-cones contribute to flicker brightness in human vision 34(174.12), 34th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (Neuroscience), October 2004 (poster)

Modelling Spikes with Mixtures of Factor Analysers

Görür, D., Rasmussen, C., Tolias, A., Sinz, F., Logothetis, N.

In Pattern Recognition, pages: 391-398, LNCS 3175, (Editors: Rasmussen, C. E. , H.H. Bülthoff, B. Schölkopf, M.A. Giese), Springer, Berlin, Germany, 26th DAGM Symposium, September 2004 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Identifying the action potentials of individual neurons from extracellular recordings, known as spike sorting, is a challenging problem. We consider the spike sorting problem using a generative model,mixtures of factor analysers, which concurrently performs clustering and feature extraction. The most important advantage of this method is that it quantifies the certainty with which the spikes are classified. This can be used as a means for evaluating the quality of clustering and therefore spike isolation. Using this method, nearly simultaneously occurring spikes can also be modelled which is a hard task for many of the spike sorting methods. Furthermore, modelling the data with a generative model allows us to generate simulated data.

PDF PDF DOI [BibTex]

ei Görür, D., Rasmussen, C., Tolias, A., Sinz, F., Logothetis, N. Modelling Spikes with Mixtures of Factor Analysers In Pattern Recognition, pages: 391-398, LNCS 3175, (Editors: Rasmussen, C. E. , H.H. Bülthoff, B. Schölkopf, M.A. Giese), Springer, Berlin, Germany, 26th DAGM Symposium, September 2004 (inproceedings)

PDF PDF DOI [BibTex]

Learning Depth From Stereo

Sinz, F., Candela, J., BakIr, G., Rasmussen, C., Franz, M.

In 26th DAGM Symposium, pages: 245-252, LNCS 3175, (Editors: Rasmussen, C. E., H. H. Bülthoff, B. Schölkopf, M. A. Giese), Springer, Berlin, Germany, 26th DAGM Symposium, September 2004 (inproceedings)

Abstract

We compare two approaches to the problem of estimating the depth of a point in space from observing its image position in two different cameras: 1.~The classical photogrammetric approach explicitly models the two cameras and estimates their intrinsic and extrinsic parameters using a tedious calibration procedure; 2.~A generic machine learning approach where the mapping from image to spatial coordinates is directly approximated by a Gaussian Process regression. Our results show that the generic learning approach, in addition to simplifying the procedure of calibration, can lead to higher depth accuracies than classical calibration although no specific domain knowledge is used.

PDF PostScript Web [BibTex]

ei Sinz, F., Candela, J., BakIr, G., Rasmussen, C., Franz, M. Learning Depth From Stereo In 26th DAGM Symposium, pages: 245-252, LNCS 3175, (Editors: Rasmussen, C. E., H. H. Bülthoff, B. Schölkopf, M. A. Giese), Springer, Berlin, Germany, 26th DAGM Symposium, September 2004 (inproceedings)

PDF PostScript Web [BibTex]

Grundlagen von Support Vector Maschinen und Anwendungen in der Bildverarbeitung

Eichhorn, J.

September 2004 (talk)

Abstract

Invited talk at the workshop "Numerical, Statistical and Discrete Methods in Image Processing" at the TU M{\"u}nchen (in GERMAN)

ei Eichhorn, J. Grundlagen von Support Vector Maschinen und Anwendungen in der Bildverarbeitung September 2004 (talk)

Bousquet, O., von Luxburg, U., Rätsch, G.

Advanced Lectures on Machine Learning

ML Summer Schools 2003, LNAI 3176, pages: 240, Springer, Berlin, Germany, ML Summer Schools, September 2004 (proceedings)

Abstract

Machine Learning has become a key enabling technology for many engineering applications, investigating scientific questions and theoretical problems alike. To stimulate discussions and to disseminate new results, a summer school series was started in February 2002, the documentation of which is published as LNAI 2600. This book presents revised lectures of two subsequent summer schools held in 2003 in Canberra, Australia, and in T{\"u}bingen, Germany. The tutorial lectures included are devoted to statistical learning theory, unsupervised learning, Bayesian inference, and applications in pattern recognition; they provide in-depth overviews of exciting new developments and contain a large number of references. Graduate students, lecturers, researchers and professionals alike will find this book a useful resource in learning and teaching machine learning.

ei Bousquet, O., von Luxburg, U., Rätsch, G. Advanced Lectures on Machine Learning ML Summer Schools 2003, LNAI 3176, pages: 240, Springer, Berlin, Germany, ML Summer Schools, September 2004 (proceedings)

Pattern Recognition: 26th DAGM Symposium, LNCS, Vol. 3175

Rasmussen, C., Bülthoff, H., Giese, M., Schölkopf, B.

Proceedings of the 26th Pattern Recognition Symposium (DAGM‘04), pages: 581, Springer, Berlin, Germany, 26th Pattern Recognition Symposium, August 2004 (proceedings)

Web DOI [BibTex]

ei Rasmussen, C., Bülthoff, H., Giese, M., Schölkopf, B. Pattern Recognition: 26th DAGM Symposium, LNCS, Vol. 3175 Proceedings of the 26th Pattern Recognition Symposium (DAGM‘04), pages: 581, Springer, Berlin, Germany, 26th Pattern Recognition Symposium, August 2004 (proceedings)

Web DOI [BibTex]

Semi-Supervised Induction

Yu, K., Tresp, V., Zhou, D.

(141), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany, August 2004 (techreport)

Abstract

Considerable progress was recently achieved on semi-supervised learning, which differs from the traditional supervised learning by additionally exploring the information of the unlabelled examples. However, a disadvantage of many existing methods is that it does not generalize to unseen inputs. This paper investigates learning methods that effectively make use of both labelled and unlabelled data to build predictive functions, which are defined on not just the seen inputs but the whole space. As a nice property, the proposed method allows effcient training and can easily handle new test points. We validate the method based on both toy data and real world data sets.

PDF PDF [BibTex]

ei Yu, K., Tresp, V., Zhou, D. Semi-Supervised Induction (141), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany, August 2004 (techreport)

PDF PDF [BibTex]

Kernel Methods in Computational Biology

Schölkopf, B., Tsuda, K., Vert, J.

pages: 410, Computational Molecular Biology, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, August 2004 (book)

Abstract

Modern machine learning techniques are proving to be extremely valuable for the analysis of data in computational biology problems. One branch of machine learning, kernel methods, lends itself particularly well to the difficult aspects of biological data, which include high dimensionality (as in microarray measurements), representation as discrete and structured data (as in DNA or amino acid sequences), and the need to combine heterogeneous sources of information. This book provides a detailed overview of current research in kernel methods and their applications to computational biology. Following three introductory chaptersan introduction to molecular and computational biology, a short review of kernel methods that focuses on intuitive concepts rather than technical details, and a detailed survey of recent applications of kernel methods in computational biologythe book is divided into three sections that reflect three general trends in current research. The first part presents different ideas for the design of kernel functions specifically adapted to various biological data; the second part covers different approaches to learning from heterogeneous data; and the third part offers examples of successful applications of support vector machine methods.

ei Schölkopf, B., Tsuda, K., Vert, J. Kernel Methods in Computational Biology pages: 410, Computational Molecular Biology, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, August 2004 (book)

Learning kernels from biological networks by maximizing entropy

Tsuda, K., Noble, W.

Bioinformatics, 20(Suppl. 1):i326-i333, August 2004 (article)

Abstract

Motivation: The diffusion kernel is a general method for computing pairwise distances among all nodes in a graph, based on the sum of weighted paths between each pair of nodes. This technique has been used successfully, in conjunction with kernel-based learning methods, to draw inferences from several types of biological networks. Results: We show that computing the diffusion kernel is equivalent to maximizing the von Neumann entropy, subject to a global constraint on the sum of the Euclidean distances between nodes. This global constraint allows for high variance in the pairwise distances. Accordingly, we propose an alternative, locally constrained diffusion kernel, and we demonstrate that the resulting kernel allows for more accurate support vector machine prediction of protein functional classifications from metabolic and proteinprotein interaction networks.

ei Tsuda, K., Noble, W. Learning kernels from biological networks by maximizing entropy Bioinformatics, 20(Suppl. 1):i326-i333, August 2004 (article)

Learning to Find Graph Pre-Images

BakIr, G., Zien, A., Tsuda, K.

In Pattern Recognition, pages: 253-261, (Editors: Rasmussen, C. E., H. H. Bülthoff, B. Schölkopf, M. A. Giese), Springer, Berlin, Germany, 26th DAGM Symposium, August 2004 (inproceedings)

Abstract

The recent development of graph kernel functions has made it possible to apply well-established machine learning methods to graphs. However, to allow for analyses that yield a graph as a result, it is necessary to solve the so-called pre-image problem: to reconstruct a graph from its feature space representation induced by the kernel. Here, we suggest a practical solution to this problem.

PostScript PDF DOI [BibTex]

ei BakIr, G., Zien, A., Tsuda, K. Learning to Find Graph Pre-Images In Pattern Recognition, pages: 253-261, (Editors: Rasmussen, C. E., H. H. Bülthoff, B. Schölkopf, M. A. Giese), Springer, Berlin, Germany, 26th DAGM Symposium, August 2004 (inproceedings)

PostScript PDF DOI [BibTex]

Masking effect produced by Mach bands on the detection of narrow bars of random polarity

Henning, GB., Hoddinott, KT., Wilson-Smith, ZJ., Hill, NJ.

Journal of the Optical Society of America, 21(8):1379-1387, A, August 2004 (article)

ei Henning, GB., Hoddinott, KT., Wilson-Smith, ZJ., Hill, NJ. Masking effect produced by Mach bands on the detection of narrow bars of random polarity Journal of the Optical Society of America, 21(8):1379-1387, A, August 2004 (article)

Exponential Families for Conditional Random Fields

Altun, Y., Smola, A., Hofmann, T.

In Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI 2004), pages: 2-9, (Editors: Chickering, D.M. , J.Y. Halpern), Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, CA, USA, 20th Annual Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), July 2004 (inproceedings)

Abstract

In this paper we define conditional random fields in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces and show connections to Gaussian Process classification. More specifically, we prove decomposition results for undirected graphical models and we give constructions for kernels. Finally we present efficient means of solving the optimization problem using reduced rank decompositions and we show how stationarity can be exploited efficiently in the optimization process.

ei Altun, Y., Smola, A., Hofmann, T. Exponential Families for Conditional Random Fields In Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI 2004), pages: 2-9, (Editors: Chickering, D.M. , J.Y. Halpern), Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, CA, USA, 20th Annual Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), July 2004 (inproceedings)

Eichhorn, J., Chapelle, O.

Object categorization with SVM: kernels for local features

(137), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, July 2004 (techreport)

Abstract

In this paper, we propose to combine an efficient image representation based on local descriptors with a Support Vector Machine classifier in order to perform object categorization. For this purpose, we apply kernels defined on sets of vectors. After testing different combinations of kernel / local descriptors, we have been able to identify a very performant one.

ei Eichhorn, J., Chapelle, O. Object categorization with SVM: kernels for local features (137), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, July 2004 (techreport)

Hilbertian Metrics and Positive Definite Kernels on Probability Measures

Hein, M., Bousquet, O.

(126), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, July 2004 (techreport)

Abstract

We investigate the problem of defining Hilbertian metrics resp. positive definite kernels on probability measures, continuing previous work. This type of kernels has shown very good results in text classification and has a wide range of possible applications. In this paper we extend the two-parameter family of Hilbertian metrics of Topsoe such that it now includes all commonly used Hilbertian metrics on probability measures. This allows us to do model selection among these metrics in an elegant and unified way. Second we investigate further our approach to incorporate similarity information of the probability space into the kernel. The analysis provides a better understanding of these kernels and gives in some cases a more efficient way to compute them. Finally we compare all proposed kernels in two text and one image classification problem.

ei Hein, M., Bousquet, O. Hilbertian Metrics and Positive Definite Kernels on Probability Measures (126), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, July 2004 (techreport)

Kernels, Associated Structures and Generalizations

Hein, M., Bousquet, O.

(127), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, July 2004 (techreport)

Abstract

This paper gives a survey of results in the mathematical literature on positive definite kernels and their associated structures. We concentrate on properties which seem potentially relevant for Machine Learning and try to clarify some results that have been misused in the literature. Moreover we consider different lines of generalizations of positive definite kernels. Namely we deal with operator-valued kernels and present the general framework of Hilbertian subspaces of Schwartz which we use to introduce kernels which are distributions. Finally indefinite kernels and their associated reproducing kernel spaces are considered.

ei Hein, M., Bousquet, O. Kernels, Associated Structures and Generalizations (127), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany, July 2004 (techreport)