arXiv subjects

Kiyoharu Aizawa

Publications and source records attributed to Kiyoharu Aizawa.

80 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Parallel Grid Pooling for Data Augmentation

Convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures utilize downsampling layers, which restrict the subsequent layers to learn spatially invariant features while reducing computational costs. However, such a downsampling operation makes it impossible to use the full spectrum of input features. Motivated by this observation, we propose a novel layer called parallel grid pooling (PGP) which is applicable to various CNN models. PGP performs downsampling without discarding any intermediate feature. It works as data augmentation and is complementary to commonly used data augmentation techniques. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a dilated convolution can naturally be represented using PGP operations, which suggests that the dilated convolution can also be regarded as a type of data augmentation technique. Experimental results based on popular image classification benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Code is available at: https://github.com/akitotakeki

cs.CV↗

arXiv2018

Object Detection for Comics using Manga109 Annotations

With the growth of digitized comics, image understanding techniques are becoming important. In this paper, we focus on object detection, which is a fundamental task of image understanding. Although convolutional neural networks (CNN)-based methods archived good performance in object detection for naturalistic images, there are two problems in applying these methods to the comic object detection task. First, there is no large-scale annotated comics dataset. The CNN-based methods require large-scale annotations for training. Secondly, the objects in comics are highly overlapped compared to naturalistic images. This overlap causes the assignment problem in the existing CNN-based methods. To solve these problems, we proposed a new annotation dataset and a new CNN model. We annotated an existing image dataset of comics and created the largest annotation dataset, named Manga109-annotations. For the assignment problem, we proposed a new CNN-based detector, SSD300-fork. We compared SSD300-fork with other detection methods using Manga109-annotations and confirmed that our model outperformed them based on the mAP score.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2017

PQk-means: Billion-scale Clustering for Product-quantized Codes

Data clustering is a fundamental operation in data analysis. For handling large-scale data, the standard k-means clustering method is not only slow, but also memory-inefficient. We propose an efficient clustering method for billion-scale feature vectors, called PQk-means. By first compressing input vectors into short product-quantized (PQ) codes, PQk-means achieves fast and memory-efficient clustering, even for high-dimensional vectors. Similar to k-means, PQk-means repeats the assignment and update steps, both of which can be performed in the PQ-code domain. Experimental results show that even short-length (32 bit) PQ-codes can produce competitive results compared with k-means. This result is of practical importance for clustering in memory-restricted environments. Using the proposed PQk-means scheme, the clustering of one billion 128D SIFT features with K = 10^5 is achieved within 14 hours, using just 32 GB of memory consumption on a single computer.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2017

cGAN-based Manga Colorization Using a Single Training Image

The Japanese comic format known as Manga is popular all over the world. It is traditionally produced in black and white, and colorization is time consuming and costly. Automatic colorization methods generally rely on greyscale values, which are not present in manga. Furthermore, due to copyright protection, colorized manga available for training is scarce. We propose a manga colorization method based on conditional Generative Adversarial Networks (cGAN). Unlike previous cGAN approaches that use many hundreds or thousands of training images, our method requires only a single colorized reference image for training, avoiding the need of a large dataset. Colorizing manga using cGANs can produce blurry results with artifacts, and the resolution is limited. We therefore also propose a method of segmentation and color-correction to mitigate these issues. The final results are sharp, clear, and in high resolution, and stay true to the character's original color scheme.

cs.GR↗

arXiv2017

Gaze Distribution Analysis and Saliency Prediction Across Age Groups

Knowledge of the human visual system helps to develop better computational models of visual attention. State-of-the-art models have been developed to mimic the visual attention system of young adults that, however, largely ignore the variations that occur with age. In this paper, we investigated how visual scene processing changes with age and we propose an age-adapted framework that helps to develop a computational model that can predict saliency across different age groups. Our analysis uncovers how the explorativeness of an observer varies with age, how well saliency maps of an age group agree with fixation points of observers from the same or different age groups, and how age influences the center bias. We analyzed the eye movement behavior of 82 observers belonging to four age groups while they explored visual scenes. Explorativeness was quantified in terms of the entropy of a saliency map, and area under the curve (AUC) metrics was used to quantify the agreement analysis and the center bias. These results were used to develop age adapted saliency models. Our results suggest that the proposed age-adapted saliency model outperforms existing saliency models in predicting the regions of interest across age groups.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2017

Residual Expansion Algorithm: Fast and Effective Optimization for Nonconvex Least Squares Problems

We propose the residual expansion (RE) algorithm: a global (or near-global) optimization method for nonconvex least squares problems. Unlike most existing nonconvex optimization techniques, the RE algorithm is not based on either stochastic or multi-point searches; therefore, it can achieve fast global optimization. Moreover, the RE algorithm is easy to implement and successful in high-dimensional optimization. The RE algorithm exhibits excellent empirical performance in terms of k-means clustering, point-set registration, optimized product quantization, and blind image deblurring.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2017

PQTable: Non-exhaustive Fast Search for Product-quantized Codes using Hash Tables

In this paper, we propose a product quantization table (PQTable); a fast search method for product-quantized codes via hash-tables. An identifier of each database vector is associated with the slot of a hash table by using its PQ-code as a key. For querying, an input vector is PQ-encoded and hashed, and the items associated with that code are then retrieved. The proposed PQTable produces the same results as a linear PQ scan, and is 10^2 to 10^5 times faster. Although state-of-the-art performance can be achieved by previous inverted-indexing-based approaches, such methods require manually-designed parameter setting and significant training; our PQTable is free of these limitations, and therefore offers a practical and effective solution for real-world problems. Specifically, when the vectors are highly compressed, our PQTable achieves one of the fastest search performances on a single CPU to date with significantly efficient memory usage (0.059 ms per query over 10^9 data points with just 5.5 GB memory consumption). Finally, we show that our proposed PQTable can naturally handle the codes of an optimized product quantization (OPQTable).

cs.CV↗

arXiv2015

Sketch-based Manga Retrieval using Manga109 Dataset

Manga (Japanese comics) are popular worldwide. However, current e-manga archives offer very limited search support, including keyword-based search by title or author, or tag-based categorization. To make the manga search experience more intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable, we propose a content-based manga retrieval system. First, we propose a manga-specific image-describing framework. It consists of efficient margin labeling, edge orientation histogram feature description, and approximate nearest-neighbor search using product quantization. Second, we propose a sketch-based interface as a natural way to interact with manga content. The interface provides sketch-based querying, relevance feedback, and query retouch. For evaluation, we built a novel dataset of manga images, Manga109, which consists of 109 comic books of 21,142 pages drawn by professional manga artists. To the best of our knowledge, Manga109 is currently the biggest dataset of manga images available for research. We conducted a comparative study, a localization evaluation, and a large-scale qualitative study. From the experiments, we verified that: (1) the retrieval accuracy of the proposed method is higher than those of previous methods; (2) the proposed method can localize an object instance with reasonable runtime and accuracy; and (3) sketch querying is useful for manga search.

cs.CV↗