Segment Anything Model for Road Network Graph Extraction

We propose SAM-Road, an adaptation of the Segment Anything Model (SAM) for extracting large-scale, vectorized road network graphs from satellite imagery. To predict graph geometry, we formulate it as a dense semantic segmentation task, leveraging the inherent strengths of SAM. The image encoder of SAM is fine-tuned to produce probability masks for roads and intersections, from which the graph vertices are extracted via simple non-maximum suppression. To predict graph topology, we designed a lightweight transformer-based graph neural network, which leverages the SAM image embeddings to estimate the edge existence probabilities between vertices. Our approach directly predicts the graph vertices and edges for large regions without expensive and complex post-processing heuristics, and is capable of building complete road network graphs spanning multiple square kilometers in a matter of seconds. With its simple, straightforward, and minimalist design, SAM-Road achieves comparable accuracy with the state-of-the-art method RNGDet++, while being 40 times faster on the City-scale dataset. We thus demonstrate the power of a foundational vision model when applied to a graph learning task. The code is available at https://github.com/htcr/sam_road.

StateFlow: Enhancing LLM Task-Solving through State-Driven Workflows

It is a notable trend to use Large Language Models (LLMs) to tackle complex tasks, e.g., tasks that require a sequence of actions and dynamic interaction with tools and environments. In this paper, we propose StateFlow, a novel LLM-based task-solving paradigm that conceptualizes complex task-solving processes backed by LLMs as state machines. With proper construction of states and definition of state transitions, StateFlow grounds the progress of task-solving, ensuring clear tracking and management of LLMs' responses throughout the task-solving process. Within each state, StateFlow allows execution of a series of actions, involving not only the generation of LLM's responses guided by a specific prompt, but also the utilization of external tools as needed. State transitions are controlled by specific rules or decisions made by the LLM, allowing for a dynamic and adaptive progression through the task's pre-defined StateFlow model. Evaluations on the InterCode SQL and Bash benchmarks show that StateFlow significantly enhances LLMs' efficiency.

Spline-Based Minimum-Curvature Trajectory Optimization for Autonomous Racing

We propose a novel B-spline trajectory optimization method for autonomous racing. We consider the unavailability of sophisticated race car and race track dynamics in early-stage autonomous motorsports development and derive methods that work with limited dynamics data and additional conservative constraints. We formulate a minimum-curvature optimization problem with only the spline control points as optimization variables. We then compare the current state-of-the-art method with our optimization result, which achieves a similar level of optimality with a 90% reduction on the decision variable dimension, and in addition offers mathematical smoothness guarantee and flexible manipulation options. We concurrently reduce the problem computation time from seconds to milliseconds for a long race track, enabling future online adaptation of the previously offline technique.

Deep Learning for Genomics: A Concise Overview

Advancements in genomic research such as high-throughput sequencing techniques have driven modern genomic studies into "big data" disciplines. This data explosion is constantly challenging conventional methods used in genomics. In parallel with the urgent demand for robust algorithms, deep learning has succeeded in a variety of fields such as vision, speech, and text processing. Yet genomics entails unique challenges to deep learning since we are expecting from deep learning a superhuman intelligence that explores beyond our knowledge to interpret the genome. A powerful deep learning model should rely on insightful utilization of task-specific knowledge. In this paper, we briefly discuss the strengths of different deep learning models from a genomic perspective so as to fit each particular task with a proper deep architecture, and remark on practical considerations of developing modern deep learning architectures for genomics. We also provide a concise review of deep learning applications in various aspects of genomic research, as well as pointing out potential opportunities and obstacles for future genomics applications.

WristAuthen: A Dynamic Time Wrapping Approach for User Authentication by Hand-Interaction through Wrist-Worn Devices

The growing trend of using wearable devices for context-aware computing and pervasive sensing systems has raised its potentials for quick and reliable authentication techniques. Since personal writing habitats differ from each other, it is possible to realize user authentication through writing. This is of great significance as sensible information is easily collected by these devices. This paper presents a novel user authentication system through wrist-worn devices by analyzing the interaction behavior with users, which is both accurate and efficient for future usage. The key feature of our approach lies in using much more effective Savitzky-Golay filter and Dynamic Time Wrapping method to obtain fine-grained writing metrics for user authentication. These new metrics are relatively unique from person to person and independent of the computing platform. Analyses are conducted on the wristband-interaction data collected from 50 users with diversity in gender, age, and height. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed approach can identify users in a timely and accurate manner, with a false-negative rate of 1.78\%, false-positive rate of 6.7\%, and Area Under ROC Curve of 0.983 . Additional examination on robustness to various mimic attacks, tolerance to training data, and comparisons to further analyze the applicability.