Xin Zhong

CV
h-index11
26papers
358citations
Novelty48%
AI Score48

26 Papers

CVJun 16, 2022Code
An Improved Normed-Deformable Convolution for Crowd Counting

Xin Zhong, Zhaoyi Yan, Jing Qin et al.

In recent years, crowd counting has become an important issue in computer vision. In most methods, the density maps are generated by convolving with a Gaussian kernel from the ground-truth dot maps which are marked around the center of human heads. Due to the fixed geometric structures in CNNs and indistinct head-scale information, the head features are obtained incompletely. Deformable convolution is proposed to exploit the scale-adaptive capabilities for CNN features in the heads. By learning the coordinate offsets of the sampling points, it is tractable to improve the ability to adjust the receptive field. However, the heads are not uniformly covered by the sampling points in the deformable convolution, resulting in loss of head information. To handle the non-uniformed sampling, an improved Normed-Deformable Convolution (\textit{i.e.,}NDConv) implemented by Normed-Deformable loss (\textit{i.e.,}NDloss) is proposed in this paper. The offsets of the sampling points which are constrained by NDloss tend to be more even. Then, the features in the heads are obtained more completely, leading to better performance. Especially, the proposed NDConv is a light-weight module which shares similar computation burden with Deformable Convolution. In the extensive experiments, our method outperforms state-of-the-art methods on ShanghaiTech A, ShanghaiTech B, UCF\_QNRF, and UCF\_CC\_50 dataset, achieving 61.4, 7.8, 91.2, and 167.2 MAE, respectively. The code is available at https://github.com/bingshuangzhuzi/NDConv

CVOct 30, 2022
Foreign Object Debris Detection for Airport Pavement Images based on Self-supervised Localization and Vision Transformer

Travis Munyer, Daniel Brinkman, Xin Zhong et al.

Supervised object detection methods provide subpar performance when applied to Foreign Object Debris (FOD) detection because FOD could be arbitrary objects according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) specification. Current supervised object detection algorithms require datasets that contain annotated examples of every to-be-detected object. While a large and expensive dataset could be developed to include common FOD examples, it is infeasible to collect all possible FOD examples in the dataset representation because of the open-ended nature of FOD. Limitations of the dataset could cause FOD detection systems driven by those supervised algorithms to miss certain FOD, which can become dangerous to airport operations. To this end, this paper presents a self-supervised FOD localization by learning to predict the runway images, which avoids the enumeration of FOD annotation examples. The localization method utilizes the Vision Transformer (ViT) to improve localization performance. The experiments show that the method successfully detects arbitrary FOD in real-world runway situations. The paper also provides an extension to the localization result to perform classification; a feature that can be useful to downstream tasks. To train the localization, this paper also presents a simple and realistic dataset creation framework that only collects clean runway images. The training and testing data for this method are collected at a local airport using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Additionally, the developed dataset is provided for public use and further studies.

CVJan 11, 2023
Padding Module: Learning the Padding in Deep Neural Networks

Fahad Alrasheedi, Xin Zhong, Pei-Chi Huang

During the last decades, many studies have been dedicated to improving the performance of neural networks, for example, the network architectures, initialization, and activation. However, investigating the importance and effects of learnable padding methods in deep learning remains relatively open. To mitigate the gap, this paper proposes a novel trainable Padding Module that can be placed in a deep learning model. The Padding Module can optimize itself without requiring or influencing the model's entire loss function. To train itself, the Padding Module constructs a ground truth and a predictor from the inputs by leveraging the underlying structure in the input data for supervision. As a result, the Padding Module can learn automatically to pad pixels to the border of its input images or feature maps. The padding contents are realistic extensions to its input data and simultaneously facilitate the deep learning model's downstream task. Experiments have shown that the proposed Padding Module outperforms the state-of-the-art competitors and the baseline methods. For example, the Padding Module has 1.23% and 0.44% more classification accuracy than the zero padding when tested on the VGG16 and ResNet50.

MMAug 8, 2023
A Brief Yet In-Depth Survey of Deep Learning-Based Image Watermarking

Xin Zhong, Arjon Das, Fahad Alrasheedi et al.

This paper presents a comprehensive survey on deep learning-based image watermarking, a technique that entails the invisible embedding and extraction of watermarks within a cover image, aiming to offer a seamless blend of robustness and adaptability. We navigate the complex landscape of this interdisciplinary domain, linking historical foundations, current innovations, and prospective developments. Unlike existing literature, our study concentrates exclusively on image watermarking with deep learning, delivering an in-depth, yet brief analysis enriched by three fundamental contributions. First, we introduce a refined categorization, segmenting the field into Embedder-Extractor, Deep Networks as a Feature Transformation, and Hybrid Methods. This taxonomy, inspired by the varied roles of deep learning across studies, is designed to infuse clarity, offering readers technical insights and directional guidance. Second, our exploration dives into representative methodologies, encapsulating the diverse research directions and inherent challenges within each category to provide a consolidated perspective. Lastly, we venture beyond established boundaries to outline emerging frontiers, offering a detailed insight into prospective research avenues.

CLJul 6, 2024
EVA-Score: Evaluating Abstractive Long-form Summarization on Informativeness through Extraction and Validation

Yuchen Fan, Yazhe Wan, Xin Zhong et al.

Since LLMs emerged, more attention has been paid to abstractive long-form summarization, where longer input sequences indicate more information contained. Nevertheless, the automatic evaluation of such summaries remains underexplored. The current evaluation metrics for long-form summarization either use similarity-based metrics like ROUGE and BERTScore or LLM-based metrics using appropriate prompts or pre-defined schema. We argue that the former only relies on similarity and fails to consider informativeness while the latter lacks quantitative analysis of informative richness, and is rather subjective and hard to explain. Current evaluation metrics either use traditional metrics like ROUGE and BERTScore, which rely on surface-level similarity and fail to consider informativeness, or simple LLM-based metrics, which are not robust and easily overwhelmed by the long contexts. In this paper, we propose a new evaluation metric called EVA-Score to extract all information from the given summaries, identify overlapped information based on reference, and calculate the information score. We test EVA-Score on several datasets and the experimental results reveal that EVA-Score shows the highest correlation with humans. We also re-evaluate the performance of LLMs on long-form summarization from the information perspective. The results indicate that responses of LLMs still have a gap with the human-written answers. Moreover, we provide a detailed analysis of the effectiveness of EVA-Score, forecasting future ways to automatically evaluate abstractive long-form summarization.

LGAug 29, 2023
Imperceptible Adversarial Attack on Deep Neural Networks from Image Boundary

Fahad Alrasheedi, Xin Zhong

Although Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), such as the convolutional neural networks (CNN) and Vision Transformers (ViTs), have been successfully applied in the field of computer vision, they are demonstrated to be vulnerable to well-sought Adversarial Examples (AEs) that can easily fool the DNNs. The research in AEs has been active, and many adversarial attacks and explanations have been proposed since they were discovered in 2014. The mystery of the AE's existence is still an open question, and many studies suggest that DNN training algorithms have blind spots. The salient objects usually do not overlap with boundaries; hence, the boundaries are not the DNN model's attention. Nevertheless, recent studies show that the boundaries can dominate the behavior of the DNN models. Hence, this study aims to look at the AEs from a different perspective and proposes an imperceptible adversarial attack that systemically attacks the input image boundary for finding the AEs. The experimental results have shown that the proposed boundary attacking method effectively attacks six CNN models and the ViT using only 32% of the input image content (from the boundaries) with an average success rate (SR) of 95.2% and an average peak signal-to-noise ratio of 41.37 dB. Correlation analyses are conducted, including the relation between the adversarial boundary's width and the SR and how the adversarial boundary changes the DNN model's attention. This paper's discoveries can potentially advance the understanding of AEs and provide a different perspective on how AEs can be constructed.

MMOct 9, 2023
Robust Image Watermarking based on Cross-Attention and Invariant Domain Learning

Agnibh Dasgupta, Xin Zhong

Image watermarking involves embedding and extracting watermarks within a cover image, with deep learning approaches emerging to bolster generalization and robustness. Predominantly, current methods employ convolution and concatenation for watermark embedding, while also integrating conceivable augmentation in the training process. This paper explores a robust image watermarking methodology by harnessing cross-attention and invariant domain learning, marking two novel, significant advancements. First, we design a watermark embedding technique utilizing a multi-head cross attention mechanism, enabling information exchange between the cover image and watermark to identify semantically suitable embedding locations. Second, we advocate for learning an invariant domain representation that encapsulates both semantic and noise-invariant information concerning the watermark, shedding light on promising avenues for enhancing image watermarking techniques.

CVSep 6, 2023
ViewMix: Augmentation for Robust Representation in Self-Supervised Learning

Arjon Das, Xin Zhong

Joint Embedding Architecture-based self-supervised learning methods have attributed the composition of data augmentations as a crucial factor for their strong representation learning capabilities. While regional dropout strategies have proven to guide models to focus on lesser indicative parts of the objects in supervised methods, it hasn't been adopted by self-supervised methods for generating positive pairs. This is because the regional dropout methods are not suitable for the input sampling process of the self-supervised methodology. Whereas dropping informative pixels from the positive pairs can result in inefficient training, replacing patches of a specific object with a different one can steer the model from maximizing the agreement between different positive pairs. Moreover, joint embedding representation learning methods have not made robustness their primary training outcome. To this end, we propose the ViewMix augmentation policy, specially designed for self-supervised learning, upon generating different views of the same image, patches are cut and pasted from one view to another. By leveraging the different views created by this augmentation strategy, multiple joint embedding-based self-supervised methodologies obtained better localization capability and consistently outperformed their corresponding baseline methods. It is also demonstrated that incorporating ViewMix augmentation policy promotes robustness of the representations in the state-of-the-art methods. Furthermore, our experimentation and analysis of compute times suggest that ViewMix augmentation doesn't introduce any additional overhead compared to other counterparts.

LGMay 7
Invariant Features in Language Models: Geometric Characterization and Model Attribution

Agnibh Dasgupta, Abdullah Tanvir, Xin Zhong

Language models exhibit strong robustness to paraphrasing, suggesting that semantic information may be encoded through stable internal representations, yet the structure and origin of such invariance remain unclear. We propose a local geometric framework in which semantically equivalent inputs occupy structured regions in latent space, with paraphrastic variation along nuisance directions and semantic identity preserved in invariant subspaces. Building on this view, we make three contributions: (1) a geometric characterization of invariant latent features, (2) a contrastive subspace discovery method that separates semantic-changing from semantic-preserving variation, and (3) an application of invariant representations to zero-shot model attribution. Across models and layers, empirical results support these contributions. Invariant structure emerges in specific depth regions, semantic displacement lies largely outside the nuisance subspace, and representation-level interventions indicate a causal role of invariant components in model outputs. Invariant representations also capture model-specific geometric patterns, enabling accurate attribution. These findings suggest that semantic invariance can be viewed as a local geometric property of latent representations, offering a principled perspective on how language models organize meaning.

MMApr 19, 2024
Deep Learning-based Text-in-Image Watermarking

Bishwa Karki, Chun-Hua Tsai, Pei-Chi Huang et al.

In this work, we introduce a novel deep learning-based approach to text-in-image watermarking, a method that embeds and extracts textual information within images to enhance data security and integrity. Leveraging the capabilities of deep learning, specifically through the use of Transformer-based architectures for text processing and Vision Transformers for image feature extraction, our method sets new benchmarks in the domain. The proposed method represents the first application of deep learning in text-in-image watermarking that improves adaptivity, allowing the model to intelligently adjust to specific image characteristics and emerging threats. Through testing and evaluation, our method has demonstrated superior robustness compared to traditional watermarking techniques, achieving enhanced imperceptibility that ensures the watermark remains undetectable across various image contents.

LGNov 7, 2024
Watermarking Language Models through Language Models

Agnibh Dasgupta, Abdullah Tanvir, Xin Zhong

Watermarking the outputs of large language models (LLMs) is critical for provenance tracing, content regulation, and model accountability. Existing approaches often rely on access to model internals or are constrained by static rules and token-level perturbations. Moreover, the idea of steering generative behavior via prompt-based instruction control remains largely underexplored. We introduce a prompt-guided watermarking framework that operates entirely at the input level and requires no access to model parameters or decoding logits. The framework comprises three cooperating components: a Prompting LM that synthesizes watermarking instructions from user prompts, a Marking LM that generates watermarked outputs conditioned on these instructions, and a Detecting LM trained to classify whether a response carries an embedded watermark. This modular design enables dynamic watermarking that adapts to individual prompts while remaining compatible with diverse LLM architectures, including both proprietary and open-weight models. We evaluate the framework over 25 combinations of Prompting and Marking LMs, such as GPT-4o, Mistral, LLaMA3, and DeepSeek. Experimental results show that watermark signals generalize across architectures and remain robust under fine-tuning, model distillation, and prompt-based adversarial attacks, demonstrating the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach.

CVMar 18, 2025
Text-Guided Image Invariant Feature Learning for Robust Image Watermarking

Muhammad Ahtesham, Xin Zhong

Ensuring robustness in image watermarking is crucial for and maintaining content integrity under diverse transformations. Recent self-supervised learning (SSL) approaches, such as DINO, have been leveraged for watermarking but primarily focus on general feature representation rather than explicitly learning invariant features. In this work, we propose a novel text-guided invariant feature learning framework for robust image watermarking. Our approach leverages CLIP's multimodal capabilities, using text embeddings as stable semantic anchors to enforce feature invariance under distortions. We evaluate the proposed method across multiple datasets, demonstrating superior robustness against various image transformations. Compared to state-of-the-art SSL methods, our model achieves higher cosine similarity in feature consistency tests and outperforms existing watermarking schemes in extraction accuracy under severe distortions. These results highlight the efficacy of our method in learning invariant representations tailored for robust deep learning-based watermarking.

IVFeb 21
TIACam: Text-Anchored Invariant Feature Learning with Auto-Augmentation for Camera-Robust Zero-Watermarking

Abdullah All Tanvir, Agnibh Dasgupta, Xin Zhong

Camera recapture introduces complex optical degradations, such as perspective warping, illumination shifts, and Moiré interference, that remain challenging for deep watermarking systems. We present TIACam, a text-anchored invariant feature learning framework with auto-augmentation for camera-robust zero-watermarking. The method integrates three key innovations: (1) a learnable auto-augmentor that discovers camera-like distortions through differentiable geometric, photometric, and Moiré operators; (2) a text-anchored invariant feature learner that enforces semantic consistency via cross-modal adversarial alignment between image and text; and (3) a zero-watermarking head that binds binary messages in the invariant feature space without modifying image pixels. This unified formulation jointly optimizes invariance, semantic alignment, and watermark recoverability. Extensive experiments on both synthetic and real-world camera captures demonstrate that TIACam achieves state-of-the-art feature stability and watermark extraction accuracy, establishing a principled bridge between multimodal invariance learning and physically robust zero-watermarking.

CVJun 25, 2025
InvZW: Invariant Feature Learning via Noise-Adversarial Training for Robust Image Zero-Watermarking

Abdullah All Tanvir, Xin Zhong

This paper introduces a novel deep learning framework for robust image zero-watermarking based on distortion-invariant feature learning. As a zero-watermarking scheme, our method leaves the original image unaltered and learns a reference signature through optimization in the feature space. The proposed framework consists of two key modules. In the first module, a feature extractor is trained via noise-adversarial learning to generate representations that are both invariant to distortions and semantically expressive. This is achieved by combining adversarial supervision against a distortion discriminator and a reconstruction constraint to retain image content. In the second module, we design a learning-based multibit zero-watermarking scheme where the trained invariant features are projected onto a set of trainable reference codes optimized to match a target binary message. Extensive experiments on diverse image datasets and a wide range of distortions show that our method achieves state-of-the-art robustness in both feature stability and watermark recovery. Comparative evaluations against existing self-supervised and deep watermarking techniques further highlight the superiority of our framework in generalization and robustness.

LGMay 20, 2025
Interpretable Dual-Stream Learning for Local Wind Hazard Prediction in Vulnerable Communities

Mahmuda Akhter Nishu, Chenyu Huang, Milad Roohi et al.

Wind hazards such as tornadoes and straight-line winds frequently affect vulnerable communities in the Great Plains of the United States, where limited infrastructure and sparse data coverage hinder effective emergency response. Existing forecasting systems focus primarily on meteorological elements and often fail to capture community-specific vulnerabilities, limiting their utility for localized risk assessment and resilience planning. To address this gap, we propose an interpretable dual-stream learning framework that integrates structured numerical weather data with unstructured textual event narratives. Our architecture combines a Random Forest and RoBERTa-based transformer through a late fusion mechanism, enabling robust and context-aware wind hazard prediction. The system is tailored for underserved tribal communities and supports block-level risk assessment. Experimental results show significant performance gains over traditional baselines. Furthermore, gradient-based sensitivity and ablation studies provide insight into the model's decision-making process, enhancing transparency and operational trust. The findings demonstrate both predictive effectiveness and practical value in supporting emergency preparedness and advancing community resilience.

LGMar 14, 2025
A Neural Network Architecture Based on Attention Gate Mechanism for 3D Magnetotelluric Forward Modeling

Xin Zhong, Weiwei Ling, Kejia Pan et al.

Traditional three-dimensional magnetotelluric (MT) numerical forward modeling methods, such as the finite element method (FEM) and finite volume method (FVM), suffer from high computational costs and low efficiency due to limitations in mesh refinement and computational resources. We propose a novel neural network architecture named MTAGU-Net, which integrates an attention gating mechanism for 3D MT forward modeling. Specifically, a dual-path attention gating module is designed based on forward response data images and embedded in the skip connections between the encoder and decoder. This module enables the fusion of critical anomaly information from shallow feature maps during the decoding of deep feature maps, significantly enhancing the network's capability to extract features from anomalous regions. Furthermore, we introduce a synthetic model generation method utilizing 3D Gaussian random field (GRF), which accurately replicates the electrical structures of real-world geological scenarios with high fidelity. Numerical experiments demonstrate that MTAGU-Net outperforms conventional 3D U-Net in terms of convergence stability and prediction accuracy, with the structural similarity index (SSIM) of the forward response data consistently exceeding 0.98. Moreover, the network can accurately predict forward response data on previously unseen datasets models, demonstrating its strong generalization ability and validating the feasibility and effectiveness of this method in practical applications.

MMMay 9, 2023
DeepTextMark: A Deep Learning-Driven Text Watermarking Approach for Identifying Large Language Model Generated Text

Travis Munyer, Abdullah Tanvir, Arjon Das et al.

The rapid advancement of Large Language Models (LLMs) has significantly enhanced the capabilities of text generators. With the potential for misuse escalating, the importance of discerning whether texts are human-authored or generated by LLMs has become paramount. Several preceding studies have ventured to address this challenge by employing binary classifiers to differentiate between human-written and LLM-generated text. Nevertheless, the reliability of these classifiers has been subject to question. Given that consequential decisions may hinge on the outcome of such classification, it is imperative that text source detection is of high caliber. In light of this, the present paper introduces DeepTextMark, a deep learning-driven text watermarking methodology devised for text source identification. By leveraging Word2Vec and Sentence Encoding for watermark insertion, alongside a transformer-based classifier for watermark detection, DeepTextMark epitomizes a blend of blindness, robustness, imperceptibility, and reliability. As elaborated within the paper, these attributes are crucial for universal text source detection, with a particular emphasis in this paper on text produced by LLMs. DeepTextMark offers a viable "add-on" solution to prevailing text generation frameworks, requiring no direct access or alterations to the underlying text generation mechanism. Experimental evaluations underscore the high imperceptibility, elevated detection accuracy, augmented robustness, reliability, and swift execution of DeepTextMark.

CVJan 14, 2022
Perspective Transformation Layer

Nishan Khatri, Agnibh Dasgupta, Yucong Shen et al.

Incorporating geometric transformations that reflect the relative position changes between an observer and an object into computer vision and deep learning models has attracted much attention in recent years. However, the existing proposals mainly focus on the affine transformation that is insufficient to reflect such geometric position changes. Furthermore, current solutions often apply a neural network module to learn a single transformation matrix, which not only ignores the importance of multi-view analysis but also includes extra training parameters from the module apart from the transformation matrix parameters that increase the model complexity. In this paper, a perspective transformation layer is proposed in the context of deep learning. The proposed layer can learn homography, therefore reflecting the geometric positions between observers and objects. In addition, by directly training its transformation matrices, a single proposed layer can learn an adjustable number of multiple viewpoints without considering module parameters. The experiments and evaluations confirm the superiority of the proposed layer.

CVOct 6, 2021
FOD-A: A Dataset for Foreign Object Debris in Airports

Travis Munyer, Pei-Chi Huang, Chenyu Huang et al.

Foreign Object Debris (FOD) detection has attracted increased attention in the area of machine learning and computer vision. However, a robust and publicly available image dataset for FOD has not been initialized. To this end, this paper introduces an image dataset of FOD, named FOD in Airports (FOD-A). FOD-A object categories have been selected based on guidance from prior documentation and related research by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In addition to the primary annotations of bounding boxes for object detection, FOD-A provides labeled environmental conditions. As such, each annotation instance is further categorized into three light level categories (bright, dim, and dark) and two weather categories (dry and wet). Currently, FOD-A has released 31 object categories and over 30,000 annotation instances. This paper presents the creation methodology, discusses the publicly available dataset extension process, and demonstrates the practicality of FOD-A with widely used machine learning models for object detection.

MMOct 6, 2021
A Deep Learning-based Audio-in-Image Watermarking Scheme

Arjon Das, Xin Zhong

This paper presents a deep learning-based audio-in-image watermarking scheme. Audio-in-image watermarking is the process of covertly embedding and extracting audio watermarks on a cover-image. Using audio watermarks can open up possibilities for different downstream applications. For the purpose of implementing an audio-in-image watermarking that adapts to the demands of increasingly diverse situations, a neural network architecture is designed to automatically learn the watermarking process in an unsupervised manner. In addition, a similarity network is developed to recognize the audio watermarks under distortions, therefore providing robustness to the proposed method. Experimental results have shown high fidelity and robustness of the proposed blind audio-in-image watermarking scheme.

CVJun 1, 2021
Integrative Use of Computer Vision and Unmanned Aircraft Technologies in Public Inspection: Foreign Object Debris Image Collection

Travis J. E. Munyer, Daniel Brinkman, Chenyu Huang et al.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have become an important resource for public service providers and smart cities. The purpose of this study is to expand this research area by integrating computer vision and UAS technology to automate public inspection. As an initial case study for this work, a dataset of common foreign object debris (FOD) is developed to assess the potential of light-weight automated detection. This paper presents the rationale and creation of this dataset. Future iterations of our work will include further technical details analyzing experimental implementation. At a local airport, UAS and portable cameras are used to collect the data contained in the initial version of this dataset. After collecting these videos of FOD, they were split into individual frames and stored as several thousand images. These frames are then annotated following standard computer vision format and stored in a folder-structure that reflects our creation method. The dataset annotations are validated using a custom tool that could be abstracted to fit future applications. Initial detection models were successfully created using the famous You Only Look Once algorithm, which indicates the practicality of the proposed data. Finally, several potential scenarios that could utilize either this dataset or similar methods for other public service are presented.

CROct 18, 2020
DLWIoT: Deep Learning-based Watermarking for Authorized IoT Onboarding

Spyridon Mastorakis, Xin Zhong, Pei-Chi Huang et al.

The onboarding of IoT devices by authorized users constitutes both a challenge and a necessity in a world, where the number of IoT devices and the tampering attacks against them continuously increase. Commonly used onboarding techniques today include the use of QR codes, pin codes, or serial numbers. These techniques typically do not protect against unauthorized device access-a QR code is physically printed on the device, while a pin code may be included in the device packaging. As a result, any entity that has physical access to a device can onboard it onto their network and, potentially, tamper it (e.g.,install malware on the device). To address this problem, in this paper, we present a framework, called Deep Learning-based Watermarking for authorized IoT onboarding (DLWIoT), featuring a robust and fully automated image watermarking scheme based on deep neural networks. DLWIoT embeds user credentials into carrier images (e.g., QR codes printed on IoT devices), thus enables IoT onboarding only by authorized users. Our experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of DLWIoT, indicating that authorized users can onboard IoT devices with DLWIoT within 2.5-3sec.

MMJul 5, 2020
An Automated and Robust Image Watermarking Scheme Based on Deep Neural Networks

Xin Zhong, Pei-Chi Huang, Spyridon Mastorakis et al.

Digital image watermarking is the process of embedding and extracting a watermark covertly on a cover-image. To dynamically adapt image watermarking algorithms, deep learning-based image watermarking schemes have attracted increased attention during recent years. However, existing deep learning-based watermarking methods neither fully apply the fitting ability to learn and automate the embedding and extracting algorithms, nor achieve the properties of robustness and blindness simultaneously. In this paper, a robust and blind image watermarking scheme based on deep learning neural networks is proposed. To minimize the requirement of domain knowledge, the fitting ability of deep neural networks is exploited to learn and generalize an automated image watermarking algorithm. A deep learning architecture is specially designed for image watermarking tasks, which will be trained in an unsupervised manner to avoid human intervention and annotation. To facilitate flexible applications, the robustness of the proposed scheme is achieved without requiring any prior knowledge or adversarial examples of possible attacks. A challenging case of watermark extraction from phone camera-captured images demonstrates the robustness and practicality of the proposal. The experiments, evaluation, and application cases confirm the superiority of the proposed scheme.

CVSep 8, 2019
Automatic Image Pixel Clustering based on Mussels Wandering Optimiz

Xin Zhong, Frank Y. Shih, Xiwang Guo

Image segmentation as a clustering problem is to identify pixel groups on an image without any preliminary labels available. It remains a challenge in machine vision because of the variations in size and shape of image segments. Furthermore, determining the segment number in an image is NP-hard without prior knowledge of the image content. This paper presents an automatic color image pixel clustering scheme based on mussels wandering optimization. By applying an activation variable to determine the number of clusters along with the cluster centers optimization, an image is segmented with minimal prior knowledge and human intervention. By revising the within- and between-class sum of squares ratio for random natural image contents, we provide a novel fitness function for image pixel clustering tasks. Comprehensive empirical studies of the proposed scheme against other state-of-the-art competitors on synthetic data and the ASD dataset have demonstrated the promising performance of the proposed scheme.

CVSep 4, 2019
Deep Morphological Neural Networks

Yucong Shen, Xin Zhong, Frank Y. Shih

Mathematical morphology is a theory and technique to collect features like geometric and topological structures in digital images. Given a target image, determining suitable morphological operations and structuring elements is a cumbersome and time-consuming task. In this paper, a morphological neural network is proposed to address this problem. Serving as a nonlinear feature extracting layer in deep learning frameworks, the efficiency of the proposed morphological layer is confirmed analytically and empirically. With a known target, a single-filter morphological layer learns the structuring element correctly, and an adaptive layer can automatically select appropriate morphological operations. For practical applications, the proposed morphological neural networks are tested on several classification datasets related to shape or geometric image features, and the experimental results have confirmed the high computational efficiency and high accuracy.

MMAug 29, 2019
A Robust Image Watermarking System Based on Deep Neural Networks

Xin Zhong, Frank Y. Shih

Digital image watermarking is the process of embedding and extracting watermark covertly on a carrier image. Incorporating deep learning networks with image watermarking has attracted increasing attention during recent years. However, existing deep learning-based watermarking systems cannot achieve robustness, blindness, and automated embedding and extraction simultaneously. In this paper, a fully automated image watermarking system based on deep neural networks is proposed to generalize the image watermarking processes. An unsupervised deep learning structure and a novel loss computation are proposed to achieve high capacity and high robustness without any prior knowledge of possible attacks. Furthermore, a challenging application of watermark extraction from camera-captured images is provided to validate the practicality as well as the robustness of the proposed system. Experimental results show the superiority performance of the proposed system as comparing against several currently available techniques.