Copula Based Classifier Fusion Under Statistical Dependence.

We consider the problem of fusing probability scores from a set of classifiers to estimate a final fused probability score. Our interest is in scenarios where the classifiers are statistically dependent. To that end, we propose a new classifier fusion approach that is data driven and founded on the statistical theory of copulas. Numerical results with both simulated and real data show that our copula based classifier fusion approach produces better probability scores than individual classifiers and outperforms existing probability score fusion approaches.

Dimensionality reduction for registration of high-dimensional data sets.

Registration of two high-dimensional data sets often involves dimensionality reduction to yield a single-band image from each data set followed by pairwise image registration. We develop a new application-specific algorithm for dimensionality reduction of high-dimensional data sets such that the weighted harmonic mean of Cramér-Rao lower bounds for the estimation of the transformation parameters for registration is minimized. The performance of the proposed dimensionality reduction algorithm is evaluated using three remotes sensing data sets. The experimental results using mutual information-based pairwise registration technique demonstrate that our proposed dimensionality reduction algorithm combines the original data sets to obtain the image pair with more texture, resulting in improved image registration.

Distributed inference in wireless sensor networks.

Statistical inference is a mature research area, but distributed inference problems that arise in the context of modern wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have new and unique features that have revitalized research in this area in recent years. The goal of this paper is to introduce the readers to these novel features and to summarize recent research developments in this area. In particular, results on distributed detection, parameter estimation and tracking in WSNs will be discussed, with a special emphasis on solutions to these inference problems that take into account the communication network connecting the sensors and the resource constraints at the sensors.

A multiobjective optimization approach to obtain decision thresholds for distributed detection in wireless sensor networks.

For distributed detection in a wireless sensor network, sensors arrive at decisions about a specific event that are then sent to a central fusion center that makes global inference about the event. For such systems, the determination of the decision thresholds for local sensors is an essential task. In this paper, we study the distributed detection problem and evaluate the sensor thresholds by formulating and solving a multiobjective optimization problem, where the objectives are to minimize the probability of error and the total energy consumption of the network. The problem is investigated and solved for two types of fusion schemes: 1) parallel decision fusion and 2) serial decision fusion. The Pareto optimal solutions are obtained using two different multiobjective optimization techniques. The normal boundary intersection (NBI) method converts the multiobjective problem into a number of single objective-constrained subproblems, where each subproblem can be solved with appropriate optimization methods and nondominating sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II), which is a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm. In our simulations, NBI yielded better and evenly distributed Pareto optimal solutions in a shorter time as compared with NSGA-II. The simulation results show that, instead of only minimizing the probability of error, multiobjective optimization provides a number of design alternatives, which achieve significant energy savings at the cost of slightly increasing the best achievable decision error probability. The simulation results also show that the parallel fusion model achieves better error probability, but the serial fusion model is more efficient in terms of energy consumption.

Quality-based fusion of multiple video sensors for video surveillance.

In this correspondence, we address the problem of fusing data for object tracking for video surveillance. The fusion process is dynamically regulated to take into account the performance of the sensors in detecting and tracking the targets. This is performed through a function that adjusts the measurement error covariance associated with the position information of each target according to the quality of its segmentation. In this manner, localization errors due to incorrect segmentation of the blobs are reduced thus improving tracking accuracy. Experimental results on video sequences of outdoor environments show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Mutual information-based CT-MR brain image registration using generalized partial volume joint histogram estimation.

Mutual information (MI)-based image registration has been found to be quite effective in many medical imaging applications. To determine the MI between two images, the joint histogram of the two images is required. In the literature, linear interpolation and partial volume interpolation (PVI) are often used while estimating the joint histogram for registration purposes. It has been shown that joint histogram estimation through these two interpolation methods may introduce artifacts in the MI registration function that hamper the optimization process and influence the registration accuracy. In this paper, we present a new joint histogram estimation scheme called generalized partial volume estimation (GPVE). It turns out that the PVI method is a special case of the GPVE procedure. We have implemented our algorithm on the clinically obtained brain computed tomography and magnetic resonance image data furnished by Vanderbilt University. Our experimental results show that, by properly choosing the kernel functions, the GPVE algorithm significantly reduces the interpolation-induced artifacts and, in cases that the artifacts clearly affect registration accuracy, the registration accuracy is improved.