AdaAugment: A Tuning-Free and Adaptive Approach to Enhance Data Augmentation

Data augmentation (DA) is widely employed to improve the generalization performance of deep models. However, most existing DA methods use augmentation operations with random magnitudes throughout training. While this fosters diversity, it can also inevitably introduce uncontrolled variability in augmented data, which may cause misalignment with the evolving training status of the target models. Both theoretical and empirical findings suggest that this misalignment increases the risks of underfitting and overfitting. To address these limitations, we propose AdaAugment, an innovative and tuning-free Adaptive Augmentation method that utilizes reinforcement learning to dynamically adjust augmentation magnitudes for individual training samples based on real-time feedback from the target network. Specifically, AdaAugment features a dual-model architecture consisting of a policy network and a target network, which are jointly optimized to effectively adapt augmentation magnitudes. The policy network optimizes the variability within the augmented data, while the target network utilizes the adaptively augmented samples for training. Extensive experiments across benchmark datasets and deep architectures demonstrate that AdaAugment consistently outperforms other state-of-the-art DA methods in effectiveness while maintaining remarkable efficiency.

Not All Data Matters: An End-to-End Adaptive Dataset Pruning Framework for Enhancing Model Performance and Efficiency

While deep neural networks have demonstrated remarkable performance across various tasks, they typically require massive training data. Due to the presence of redundancies and biases in real-world datasets, not all data in the training dataset contributes to the model performance. To address this issue, dataset pruning techniques have been introduced to enhance model performance and efficiency by eliminating redundant training samples and reducing computational and memory overhead. However, previous works most rely on manually crafted scalar scores, limiting their practical performance and scalability across diverse deep networks and datasets. In this paper, we propose AdaPruner, an end-to-end Adaptive DAtaset PRUNing framEwoRk. AdaPruner can perform effective dataset pruning without the need for explicitly defined metrics. Our framework jointly prunes training data and fine-tunes models with task-specific optimization objectives. AdaPruner leverages (1) An adaptive dataset pruning (ADP) module, which iteratively prunes redundant samples to an expected pruning ratio; and (2) A pruning performance controller (PPC) module, which optimizes the model performance for accurate pruning. Therefore, AdaPruner exhibits high scalability and compatibility across various datasets and deep networks, yielding improved dataset distribution and enhanced model performance. AdaPruner can still significantly enhance model performance even after pruning up to 10-30\% of the training data. Notably, these improvements are accompanied by substantial savings in memory and computation costs. Qualitative and quantitative experiments suggest that AdaPruner outperforms other state-of-the-art dataset pruning methods by a large margin.

A Simple Geometric-Aware Indoor Positioning Interpolation Algorithm Based on Manifold Learning

Interpolation methodologies have been widely used within the domain of indoor positioning systems. However, existing indoor positioning interpolation algorithms exhibit several inherent limitations, including reliance on complex mathematical models, limited flexibility, and relatively low precision. To enhance the accuracy and efficiency of indoor positioning interpolation techniques, this paper proposes a simple yet powerful geometric-aware interpolation algorithm for indoor positioning tasks. The key to our algorithm is to exploit the geometric attributes of the local topological manifold using manifold learning principles. Therefore, instead of constructing complicated mathematical models, the proposed algorithm facilitates the more precise and efficient estimation of points grounded in the local topological manifold. Moreover, our proposed method can be effortlessly integrated into any indoor positioning system, thereby bolstering its adaptability. Through a systematic array of experiments and comprehensive performance analyses conducted on both simulated and real-world datasets, we demonstrate that the proposed algorithm consistently outperforms the most commonly used and representative interpolation approaches regarding interpolation accuracy and efficiency. Furthermore, the experimental results also underscore the substantial practical utility of our method and its potential applicability in real-time indoor positioning scenarios.

AdvMask: A Sparse Adversarial Attack Based Data Augmentation Method for Image Classification

Data augmentation is a widely used technique for enhancing the generalization ability of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in image classification tasks. Occlusion is a critical factor that affects on the generalization ability of image classification models. In order to generate new samples, existing data augmentation methods based on information deletion simulate occluded samples by randomly removing some areas in the images. However, those methods cannot delete areas of the images according to their structural features of the images. To solve those problems, we propose a novel data augmentation method, AdvMask, for image classification tasks. Instead of randomly removing areas in the images, AdvMask obtains the key points that have the greatest influence on the classification results via an end-to-end sparse adversarial attack module. Therefore, we can find the most sensitive points of the classification results without considering the diversity of various image appearance and shapes of the object of interest. In addition, a data augmentation module is employed to generate structured masks based on the key points, thus forcing the CNN classification models to seek other relevant content when the most discriminative content is hidden. AdvMask can effectively improve the performance of classification models in the testing process. The experimental results on various datasets and CNN models verify that the proposed method outperforms other previous data augmentation methods in image classification tasks.

Review Neural Networks about Image Transformation Based on IGC Learning Framework with Annotated Information

Image transformation, a class of vision and graphics problems whose goal is to learn the mapping between an input image and an output image, develops rapidly in the context of deep neural networks. In Computer Vision (CV), many problems can be regarded as the image transformation task, e.g., semantic segmentation and style transfer. These works have different topics and motivations, making the image transformation task flourishing. Some surveys only review the research on style transfer or image-to-image translation, all of which are just a branch of image transformation. However, none of the surveys summarize those works together in a unified framework to our best knowledge. This paper proposes a novel learning framework including Independent learning, Guided learning, and Cooperative learning, called the IGC learning framework. The image transformation we discuss mainly involves the general image-to-image translation and style transfer about deep neural networks. From the perspective of this framework, we review those subtasks and give a unified interpretation of various scenarios. We categorize related subtasks about the image transformation according to similar development trends. Furthermore, experiments have been performed to verify the effectiveness of IGC learning. Finally, new research directions and open problems are discussed for future research.

Image Data Augmentation for Deep Learning: A Survey

Deep learning has achieved remarkable results in many computer vision tasks. Deep neural networks typically rely on large amounts of training data to avoid overfitting. However, labeled data for real-world applications may be limited. By improving the quantity and diversity of training data, data augmentation has become an inevitable part of deep learning model training with image data. As an effective way to improve the sufficiency and diversity of training data, data augmentation has become a necessary part of successful application of deep learning models on image data. In this paper, we systematically review different image data augmentation methods. We propose a taxonomy of reviewed methods and present the strengths and limitations of these methods. We also conduct extensive experiments with various data augmentation methods on three typical computer vision tasks, including semantic segmentation, image classification and object detection. Finally, we discuss current challenges faced by data augmentation and future research directions to put forward some useful research guidance.