We describe an ad-hoc localization system for sensor networks and explain why traditional calibration methods are inadequate for this system. Building upon previous work, we frame calibration as a parameter estimation problem; we parameterize each device and choose the values of those parameters that optimize the overall system performance. This method reduces our average error from 74.6% without calibration to 10.1%. We propose ways to expand this technique to a method of autocalibration for localization as well as to other sensor network applications.

Large linear systems of saddle point type arise in a wide variety of applications throughout computational science and engineering. Due to their indefiniteness and often poor spectral properties, such linear systems represent a significant challenge for solver developers. In recent years there has been a surge of interest in saddle point problems, and numerous solution techniques have been proposed for solving this type of systems. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss a large selection of solution methods for linear systems in saddle point form, with an emphasis on iterative methods for large and sparse problems.

This paper describes a theory and a practical algorithm for the autocalibration of a moving projective camera, from views of a planar scene. The unknown camera calibration, and (up to scale) the unknown scene geometry and camera motion are recovered from the hypothesis that the camera’s internal parameters remain constant during the motion. This work extends the various existing methods for non-planar autocalibration to a practically common situation in which it is not possible to bootstrap the calibration from an intermediate projective reconstruction. It also extends Hartley’s method for the internal calibration of a rotating camera, to allow camera translation and to provide 3D as well as calibration information. The basic constraint is that the projections of orthogonal direction vectors (points at infinity) in the plane must be orthogonal in the calibrated camera frame of each image. Abstractly, since the two circular points of the 3D plane (representing its Euclidean structure) lie on the 3D absolute conic, their projections into each image must lie on the absolute conic’s image (representing the camera calibration). The resulting numerical algorithm optimizes this constraint over all circular points and projective calibration parameters, using the inter-image homographies as a projective scene representation.

Abstract An algorithm is proposed which generates a nonlinear kernel-based separating surface that requires as little as 1 % of a large dataset for its explicit evaluation. To generate this nonlinear surface, the entire dataset is used as a constraint in an optimization problem with very few variables corresponding to the 1%

Abstract. This paper gives an algcmthm for solving linear programming problems. For a problem with tz constraints and d variables, the algorithm requires an expected O(d’n) + (log n)o(d)d’’+(’(’) + o(dJA log n) arithmetic operations, as rz ~ ~. The constant factors do not depend on d. Also, an algorlthm N gwen for integer hnear programmmg. Let p bound the number of bits required to specify the ratmnal numbers defmmg an input constraint or the ob~ective function vector. Let n and d be as before. Then, the algorithm requires expected 0(2d dn + S~dm In n) + dc)’d) ~ in H operations on numbers with O(1~p bits d ~ ~ ~z + ~, where the constant factors do not depend on d or p. The expectations are with respect to the random choices made by the algorithms, and the bounds hold for any gwen input. The techmque can be extended to other convex programming problems. For example, m algorlthm for finding the smallest sphere enclosing a set of /z points m Ed has the same t]me bound

this paper we examine the underlying ideas of the SQP method and the theory that establishes it as a framework from which effective algorithms can

In this paper we discuss the development and use of low-rank approximate nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) algorithms for feature extraction and identification in the fields of text mining and spectral data analysis. The evolution and convergence properties of hybrid methods based on both sparsity and smoothness constraints for the resulting nonnegative matrix factors are discussed. The interpretability of NMF outputs in specific contexts are provided along with opportunities for future work in the modification of NMF algorithms for large-scale and time-varying datasets. Key words: nonnegative matrix factorization, text mining, spectral data analysis, email surveillance, conjugate gradient, constrained least squares.

Jorge Nocedal z An algorithm for minimizing a nonlinear function subject to nonlinear inequality constraints is described. It applies sequential quadratic programming techniques to a sequence of barrier problems, and uses trust regions to ensure the robustness of the iteration and to allow the direct use of second order derivatives. This framework permits primal and primal-dual steps, but the paper focuses on the primal version of the new algorithm. An analysis of the convergence properties of this method is presented. Key words: constrained optimization, interior point method, large-scale optimization, nonlinear programming, primal method, primal-dual method, SQP iteration, barrier method, trust region method.

Animation through the numerical simulation of physics-based graphics models offers unsurpassed realism, but it can be computationally demanding. Likewise, finding controllers that enable physics-based models to produce desired animations usually entails formidable computational cost. This paper demonstrates the possibility of replacing the numerical simulation and control of model dynamics with a dramatically more efficient alternative. In particular, we propose the NeuroAnimator, a novel approach to creating physically realistic animation that exploits neural networks. NeuroAnimators are automatically trained off-line to emulate physical dynamics through the observation of physics-based models in action. Depending on the model, its neural network emulator can yield physically realistic animation one or two orders of magnitude faster than conventional numerical simulation. Furthermore, by exploiting the network structure of the NeuroAnimator, we introduce a fast algorithm for learning controllers that enables either physics-based models or their neural network emulators to synthesize motions satisfying prescribed animation goals. We demonstrate NeuroAnimators for passive and active (actuated) rigid body, articulated, and deformable physics-based models.

This work analyzes some concepts of genetic algorithms and explains why they may be applied with success to some problems in function optimization. In addition to other performance properties, it has been shown that genetic algorithms are able to overcome local minima in highly multimodal functions (e.g., Rastrigin, Schwefel). The performance of genetic algorithms is supported by an extensive theory, which is based on the assumption of additive gene effects. But the current work shows that the assumption of additive gene effects is not weak, and that the dependence on specific parameter settings is much stronger than often believed. Furthermore, the assumptions regarding the fitness function are so restricting that slight modifications of the standard test functions cause a failure of the optimization procedure even though the function's structure is preserved. The current experiments focus on a few widely-used scalable test functions. the results indicate that a standard g...