Spiking Neural Network Enhanced Hand Gesture Recognition Using Low-Cost Single-photon Avalanche Diode Array

We present a compact spiking convolutional neural network (SCNN) and spiking multilayer perceptron (SMLP) to recognize ten different gestures in dark and bright light environments, using a $9.6 single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) array. In our hand gesture recognition (HGR) system, photon intensity data was leveraged to train and test the network. A vanilla convolutional neural network (CNN) was also implemented to compare the performance of SCNN with the same network topologies and training strategies. Our SCNN was trained from scratch instead of being converted from the CNN. We tested the three models in dark and ambient light (AL)-corrupted environments. The results indicate that SCNN achieves comparable accuracy (90.8%) to CNN (92.9%) and exhibits lower floating operations with only 8 timesteps. SMLP also presents a trade-off between computational workload and accuracy. The code and collected datasets of this work are available at https://github.com/zzy666666zzy/TinyLiDAR_NET_SNN.

Enhancing Blood Flow Assessment in Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy: A Transfer Learning Approach with Noise Robustness Analysis

Diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) is an emerging noninvasive technique that measures the tissue blood flow, by using near-infrared coherent point-source illumination to detect spectral changes. While machine learning has demonstrated significant potential for measuring blood flow index (BFi), an open question concerning the success of this approach pertains to its robustness in scenarios involving deviations between datasets with varying Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNRs) originating from diverse clinical applications and various setups. This study proposes a transfer learning approach, aims to assess the influence of SNRs on the generalization ability of learned features, and demonstrate the robustness for transfer learning. A synthetic dataset with varying levels of added noise is utilized to simulate different SNRs. The proposed network takes a 1x64 autocorrelation curve as input and generates BFi and the correlation parameter beta. The proposed model demonstrates excellent performance across different SNRs, exhibiting enhanced fitting accuracy, particularly for low SNR datasets when compared with other fitting methods. This highlights its potential for clinical diagnosis and treatment across various scenarios under different clinical setups.

Fast Cerebral Blood Flow Analysis via Extreme Learning Machine

We introduce a rapid and precise analytical approach for analyzing cerebral blood flow (CBF) using Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy (DCS) with the application of the Extreme Learning Machine (ELM). Our evaluation of ELM and existing algorithms involves a comprehensive set of metrics. We assess these algorithms using synthetic datasets for both semi-infinite and multi-layer models. The results demonstrate that ELM consistently achieves higher fidelity across various noise levels and optical parameters, showcasing robust generalization ability and outperforming iterative fitting algorithms. Through a comparison with a computationally efficient neural network, ELM attains comparable accuracy with reduced training and inference times. Notably, the absence of a back-propagation process in ELM during training results in significantly faster training speeds compared to existing neural network approaches. This proposed strategy holds promise for edge computing applications with online training capabilities.