JPEG Inspired Deep Learning

Although it is traditionally believed that lossy image compression, such as JPEG compression, has a negative impact on the performance of deep neural networks (DNNs), it is shown by recent works that well-crafted JPEG compression can actually improve the performance of deep learning (DL). Inspired by this, we propose JPEG-DL, a novel DL framework that prepends any underlying DNN architecture with a trainable JPEG compression layer. To make the quantization operation in JPEG compression trainable, a new differentiable soft quantizer is employed at the JPEG layer, and then the quantization operation and underlying DNN are jointly trained. Extensive experiments show that in comparison with the standard DL, JPEG-DL delivers significant accuracy improvements across various datasets and model architectures while enhancing robustness against adversarial attacks. Particularly, on some fine-grained image classification datasets, JPEG-DL can increase prediction accuracy by as much as 20.9%. Our code is available on https://github.com/JpegInspiredDl/JPEG-Inspired-DL.git.

ClearDepth: Enhanced Stereo Perception of Transparent Objects for Robotic Manipulation

Transparent object depth perception poses a challenge in everyday life and logistics, primarily due to the inability of standard 3D sensors to accurately capture depth on transparent or reflective surfaces. This limitation significantly affects depth map and point cloud-reliant applications, especially in robotic manipulation. We developed a vision transformer-based algorithm for stereo depth recovery of transparent objects. This approach is complemented by an innovative feature post-fusion module, which enhances the accuracy of depth recovery by structural features in images. To address the high costs associated with dataset collection for stereo camera-based perception of transparent objects, our method incorporates a parameter-aligned, domain-adaptive, and physically realistic Sim2Real simulation for efficient data generation, accelerated by AI algorithm. Our experimental results demonstrate the model's exceptional Sim2Real generalizability in real-world scenarios, enabling precise depth mapping of transparent objects to assist in robotic manipulation. Project details are available at https://sites.google.com/view/cleardepth/ .

A Self-supervised Contrastive Learning Method for Grasp Outcomes Prediction

In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of contrastive learning methods for predicting grasp outcomes in an unsupervised manner. By utilizing a publicly available dataset, we demonstrate that contrastive learning methods perform well on the task of grasp outcomes prediction. Specifically, the dynamic-dictionary-based method with the momentum updating technique achieves a satisfactory accuracy of 81.83% using data from one single tactile sensor, outperforming other unsupervised methods. Our results reveal the potential of contrastive learning methods for applications in the field of robot grasping and highlight the importance of accurate grasp prediction for achieving stable grasps.

Using contrastive learning to improve the performance of steganalysis schemes

To improve the detection accuracy and generalization of steganalysis, this paper proposes the Steganalysis Contrastive Framework (SCF) based on contrastive learning. The SCF improves the feature representation of steganalysis by maximizing the distance between features of samples of different categories and minimizing the distance between features of samples of the same category. To decrease the computing complexity of the contrastive loss in supervised learning, we design a novel Steganalysis Contrastive Loss (StegCL) based on the equivalence and transitivity of similarity. The StegCL eliminates the redundant computing in the existing contrastive loss. The experimental results show that the SCF improves the generalization and detection accuracy of existing steganalysis DNNs, and the maximum promotion is 2% and 3% respectively. Without decreasing the detection accuracy, the training time of using the StegCL is 10% of that of using the contrastive loss in supervised learning.