Simulation-assisted machine learning.

MOTIVATION: In a predictive modeling setting, if sufficient details of the system behavior are known, one can build and use a simulation for making predictions. When sufficient system details are not known, one typically turns to machine learning, which builds a black-box model of the system using a large dataset of input sample features and outputs. We consider a setting which is between these two extremes: some details of the system mechanics are known but not enough for creating simulations that can be used to make high quality predictions. In this context we propose using approximate simulations to build a kernel for use in kernelized machine learning methods, such as support vector machines. The results of multiple simulations (under various uncertainty scenarios) are used to compute similarity measures between every pair of samples: sample pairs are given a high similarity score if they behave similarly under a wide range of simulation parameters. These similarity values, rather than the original high dimensional feature data, are used to build the kernel. RESULTS: We demonstrate and explore the simulation-based kernel (SimKern) concept using four synthetic complex systems-three biologically inspired models and one network flow optimization model. We show that, when the number of training samples is small compared to the number of features, the SimKern approach dominates over no-prior-knowledge methods. This approach should be applicable in all disciplines where predictive models are sought and informative yet approximate simulations are available. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The Python SimKern software, the demonstration models (in MATLAB, R), and the datasets are available at https://github.com/davidcraft/SimKern. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

A fast parametric motion estimation algorithm with illumination and lens distortion correction.

Methods for estimating motion in video sequences that are based on the optical flow equation (OFE) assume that the scene illumination is uniform and that the imaging optics are ideal. When these assumptions are appropriate, these methods can be very accurate, but when they are not, the accuracy of the motion field drops off accordingly. This paper extends the models upon which the OFE methods are based to include irregular, time-varying illumination models and models for imperfect optics that introduce vignetting, gamma, and geometric warping, such as are likely to be found with inexpensive PC cameras. The resulting optimization framework estimates the motion parameters, illumination parameters, and camera parameters simultaneously. In some cases these models can lead to nonlinear equations which must be solved iteratively; in other cases, the resulting optimization problem is linear. For the former case an efficient, hierarchical, iterative framework is provided that can be used to implement the motion estimator.