Efficient algorithms for subwindow search in object detection and localization

Recently, a simple yet powerful branch-and-bound method called Efficient Subwindow Search (ESS) was developed to speed up sliding window search in object detection. A major drawback of ESS is that its computational complexity varies widely from O(n²) to O(n⁴) for n × n matrices. Our experimental experience shows that the ESS's performance is highly related to the optimal confidence levels which indicate the probability of the object's presence. In particular, when the object is not in the image, the optimal subwindow scores low and ESS may take a large amount of iterations to converge to the optimal solution and so perform very slow. Addressing this problem, we present two significantly faster methods based on the linear-time Kadane's Algorithm for 1D maximum subarray search. The first algorithm is a novel, computationally superior branchand- bound method where the worst case complexity is reduced to O(n³). Experiments on the PASCAL VOC 2006 data set demonstrate that this method is significantly and consistently faster (approximately 30 times faster on average) than the original ESS. Our second algorithm is an approximate algorithm based on alternating search, whose computational complexity is typically O(n²). Experiments shows that (on average) it is 30 times faster again than our first algorithm, or 900 times faster than ESS. It is thus wellsuited for real time object detection.

Exploiting monge structures in optimum subwindow search

Optimum subwindow search for object detection aims to find a subwindow so that the contained subimage is most similar to the query object. This problem can be formulated as a four dimensional (4D) maximum entry search problem wherein each entry corresponds to the quality score of the subimage contained in a subwindow. For n x n images, a naive exhaustive search requires O(n⁴) sequential computations of the quality scores for all subwindows. To reduce the time complexity, we prove that, for some typical similarity functions like Euclidian metric, χ² metric on image histograms, the associated 4D array carries some Monge structures and we utilise these properties to speed up the optimum subwindow search and the time complexity is reduced to O(n³). Furthermore, we propose a locally optimal alternating column and row search method with typical quadratic time complexity O(n²). Experiments on PASCAL VOC 2006 demonstrate that the alternating method is significantly faster than the well known efficient subwindow search (ESS) method whilst the performance loss due to local maxima problem is negligible.

Improving P2P IPTV random peers search through user similarity

With internet services to the end users becoming more homogenous, thus providing high bandwidth for all users, multimedia services such as IPTV to the public as a whole will finally become a reality, but even given the more abundant resources, IPTV architecture is far from being highly available due to technical limitations, we aim to provide a meaningful optimization in the P2P distribution model, which is currently based on a random structure bounded by high delays and low performance, by using channel probability, user's habits studies and users' similarity, in order to optimize one of the key aspects of IPTV which is the peers management, which directly reflects on resources and user's Quality of Experience.

Context-aware meta search engine for distributed web service

The ubiquity of the Internet and Web has led to the emergency of several Web search engines with varying capabilities. A weakness of existing search engines is the very extensive amount of hits that they can produce. Moreover, only a small number of web users actually know how to utilize the true power of Web search engines. Therefore, there is a need for searching infrastructure to help ease and guide the searching efforts of web users toward their desired objectives. In this paper, we propose a context-based meta-search engine and discuss its implementation on top of the actual Google.com search engine. The proposed meta-search engine benefits the user the most when the user does not know what exact document he or she is looking for. Comparison of the context-based meta-search engine with both Google and Guided Google shows that the results returned by context-based meta-search engine is much more intuitive and accurate than the results returned by both Google and Guided Google.

A serverless ultra-lightweight secure search protocol for EPC Class-1 Gen-2 UHF RFID tags

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a technology that enables the non-contact, automatic and unique identification of objects using radio waves. Its use for commercial applications has recently become attractive with RFID technology seen as the replacement for the optical barcode system that is currently in widespread use. RFID has many advantages over the traditional barcode and these advantages have the potential to significantly increase the efficiency of decentralised business environments such as logistics and supply chain management. One of the important features of an RFID system is its ability to search for a particular tag among a group of tags. In order to ensure the privacy and security of the tags, the search has to be conducted in a secure fashion. To our knowledge not much work has been done in this secure search area of RFID. The limited work that has been done does not comply with the EPC Class-1 Gen-2 standards since most of them use expensive hash operations or sophisticated encryption schemes that cannot be implemented on low-cost passive tags that are highly resource constrained. Our work aims to fill this gap by proposing a serverless ultra-lightweight secure search protocol that does not use the expensive hash functions or any complex encryption schemes but achieves compliance with EPC Class-1 Gen-2 standards while meeting the required security requirements. Our protocol is based on XOR encryption and random numbers - operations that are easily implemented on low-cost RFID tags. Our protocol also provides additional protection using a blind-factor to prevent tracking attacks. Since our protocol is EPC Class-1 Gen-2 compliant it makes it possible to implement it on low-cost passive RFID tags.

The search : version 1

The Search (version 1) is one of a suite of drawings that responds to the work 'Kangaroo Stalking' by S.T.Gill. It also plays with certain ideas or problems in the depiction of landscape more broadly. The exhibition invited SCCA staff to each respond to a particular work within the Deakin collection.

Direct versus search engine traffic : an innovative approach to demand analysis in the property market

Purpose – The application of “Google” econometrics (Geco) has evolved rapidly in recent years and can be applied in various fields of research. Based on accepted theories in existing economic literature, this paper seeks to contribute to the innovative use of research on Google search query data to provide a new innovative to property research.

Design/methodology/approach – In this study, existing data from Google Insights for Search (GI4S) is extended into a new potential source of consumer sentiment data based on visits to a commonly-used UK online real-estate agent platform (Rightmove.co.uk). In order to contribute to knowledge about the use of Geco's black box, namely the unknown sampling population and the specific search queries influencing the variables, the GI4S series are compared to direct web navigation.

Findings – The main finding from this study is that GI4S data produce immediate real-time results with a high level of reliability in explaining the future volume of transactions and house prices in comparison to the direct website data. Furthermore, the results reveal that the number of visits to Rightmove.co.uk is driven by GI4S data and vice versa, and indeed without a contemporaneous relationship.

Originality/value – This study contributes to the new emerging and innovative field of research involving search engine data. It also contributes to the knowledge base about the increasing use of online consumer data in economic research in property markets.

Solving a multiobjective job shop scheduling problem using Pareto Archived Cuckoo Search

This paper investigates a new approach for solving the multiobjective job shop scheduling problem, namely the Cuckoo Search ( CS) approach. The requirement is to schedule jobs on a single machine so that the total material waste is minimised as well as the total tardiness time. The material waste is quantified in terms of saving factors to show the reduction in material that can be achieved when producing two jobs with the same materials in sequence. The estimated saving factor is used to calculate a cost savings for each job based on its material type. A formulation of multiobjective optimisation problems is adopted to generate the set of schedules that maximise the overall cost savings and minimise the total tardiness time. where all trade-offs are considered for the two conflicting objectives. A Pareto Archived Multiobjective Cuckoo Search (PAMOCS) is developed to find the set ofnondominated Pareto optimal solutions. The solution accuracy of PAMOCS is shown by comparing the closeness of the obtained solutions to the true Pareto front generated by the complete enumeration methad. Results shaw that CS is a very effective and promising technique to solve job shop scheduling problems.

A secure search protocol based on Quadratic Residues for EPC Class-1 Gen-2 UHF RFID tags

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a technological revolution that is expected to soon replace barcode systems. One of the important features of an RFID system is its ability to search for a particular tag among a group of tags. This task is quite common where RFID systems play a vital role. To our knowledge not much work has been done in this secure search area of RFID. Also, most of the existing work do not comply with the C1G2 standards. Our work aims to fill that gap by proposing a protocol based on Quadratic Residues property that does not use the expensive hash functions or any complex encryption schemes but achieves total compliance with industry standards while meeting the security requirements.

Beginning the search for core principles underpinning literacy development in the early years

Providing opportunities for all people to become literate is now a global imperative (World Bank 2008). There are many and varied reasons underlying this emphasis including global, national, community and personal perspectives (Friere & Macedo 2000) and countries world-wide are investing more money into their early childhood programs and the development of associated policies (Oberhuemer 2005). From a socio-cultural view, literacy development is emergent, ongoing (Cook-Gumperz 2006) and multifaceted (New London Group 1999). Literacy involves far more than reading and writing and encompasses listening, speaking and critical thinking (Department of Education, Science and Training 2005, Luke & Freebody 1997). Literacy is not merely a curricular area, but an important empowering life skill (Harrison 2012, Friere & Macedo 2000). It seems logical then, to search for and identify if there are core principles underpinning early years literacy development.In seeking to identify core principles for emergent literacy development, the study reported here adopted Wiersma & Jurs' (2005) 'Four Step' Historical Research methodological approach involving the identification of a research problem, collection and evaluation of source materials, synthesis of information from the source materials and finally, the analysis, interpretation and the formulation of conclusions. The historical research approach requires creative interpretation (Keastle 1988) and is valued for its effectiveness in sourcing ideas, enlightening current debates, empowering decision-making (Stricker 1992) and influencing policy formation (Wiersma & Jurs 2005).This study involved analysis of Early Years Language and Emergent Literacy Research from the past decade, sourced via education and social sciences databases, as well as information gathered from correspondence with Australian government departments, their websites and policies. The findings from a synthesis of these data sources led to the identification of nine core principles viewed as underpinning children's emergent literacy development. Interested in exploring the relevance and application of these principles to the field of early childhood in Australia, additionally, the researcher has embarked upon a mapping exercise that reveals how the recently introduced Early Years Learning Frameworks align with these principles. Furthermore, in recognition of the importance of the early years as a crucial time in a child's literacy development (Cook-Gumperz 2006, Raban & Nolan 2005, Hall, Larson & Marsh 2003), it is argued that these literacy principles will be valuable to the development of a range of educational tools to be used by Pre-service and practicing Early years educators.

Faster and parameter-free discord search in quasi-periodic time series

Time series discord has proven to be a useful concept for time-series anomaly identification. To search for discords, various algorithms have been developed. Most of these algorithms rely on pre-building an index (such as a trie) for subsequences. Users of these algorithms are typically required to choose optimal values for word-length and/or alphabet-size parameters of the index, which are not intuitive. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to directly search for the top-K discords, without the requirement of building an index or tuning external parameters. The algorithm exploits quasi-periodicity present in many time series. For quasi-periodic time series, the algorithm gains significant speedup by reducing the number of calls to the distance function.