Transformer models are revolutionizing machine learning, but their inner workings remain mysterious. In this work, we present a new visualization technique designed to help researchers understand the self-attention mechanism in transformers that allows these models to learn rich, contextual relationships between elements of a sequence. The main idea behind our method is to visualize a joint embedding of the query and key vectors used by transformer models to compute attention. Unlike previous attention visualization techniques, our approach enables the analysis of global patterns across multiple input sequences. We create an interactive visualization tool, AttentionViz (demo: //attentionviz.com), based on these joint query-key embeddings, and use it to study attention mechanisms in both language and vision transformers. We demonstrate the utility of our approach in improving model understanding and offering new insights about query-key interactions through several application scenarios and expert feedback.
Spatial joins are among the most time-consuming queries in spatial data management systems. In this paper, we propose SwiftSpatial, a specialized accelerator architecture tailored for spatial joins. SwiftSpatial contains multiple high-performance join units with innovative hybrid parallelism, several efficient memory management units, and an integrated on-chip join scheduler. We prototype SwiftSpatial on an FPGA and incorporate the R-tree synchronous traversal algorithm as the control flow. Benchmarked against various CPU and GPU-based spatial data processing systems, SwiftSpatial demonstrates a latency reduction of up to 5.36x relative to the best-performing baseline, while requiring 6.16x less power. The remarkable performance and energy efficiency of SwiftSpatial lay a solid foundation for its future integration into spatial data management systems, both in data centers and at the edge.
In this work, we present CCEdit, a versatile framework designed to address the challenges of creative and controllable video editing. CCEdit accommodates a wide spectrum of user editing requirements and enables enhanced creative control through an innovative approach that decouples video structure and appearance. We leverage the foundational ControlNet architecture to preserve structural integrity, while seamlessly integrating adaptable temporal modules compatible with state-of-the-art personalization techniques for text-to-image generation, such as DreamBooth and LoRA.Furthermore, we introduce reference-conditioned video editing, empowering users to exercise precise creative control over video editing through the more manageable process of editing key frames. Our extensive experimental evaluations confirm the exceptional functionality and editing capabilities of the proposed CCEdit framework. Demo video is available at //www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQw4jq-igN4.
Image retrieval is a fundamental task in computer vision. Despite recent advances in this field, many techniques have been evaluated on a limited number of domains, with a small number of instance categories. Notably, most existing works only consider domains like 3D landmarks, making it difficult to generalize the conclusions made by these works to other domains, e.g., logo and other 2D flat objects. To bridge this gap, we introduce a new dataset for benchmarking visual search methods on flat images with diverse patterns. Our flat object retrieval benchmark (FORB) supplements the commonly adopted 3D object domain, and more importantly, it serves as a testbed for assessing the image embedding quality on out-of-distribution domains. In this benchmark we investigate the retrieval accuracy of representative methods in terms of candidate ranks, as well as matching score margin, a viewpoint which is largely ignored by many works. Our experiments not only highlight the challenges and rich heterogeneity of FORB, but also reveal the hidden properties of different retrieval strategies. The proposed benchmark is a growing project and we expect to expand in both quantity and variety of objects. The dataset and supporting codes are available at //github.com/pxiangwu/FORB/.
Transferring human motion skills to humanoid robots remains a significant challenge. In this study, we introduce a Wasserstein adversarial imitation learning system, allowing humanoid robots to replicate natural whole-body locomotion patterns and execute seamless transitions by mimicking human motions. First, we present a unified primitive-skeleton motion retargeting to mitigate morphological differences between arbitrary human demonstrators and humanoid robots. An adversarial critic component is integrated with Reinforcement Learning (RL) to guide the control policy to produce behaviors aligned with the data distribution of mixed reference motions. Additionally, we employ a specific Integral Probabilistic Metric (IPM), namely the Wasserstein-1 distance with a novel soft boundary constraint to stabilize the training process and prevent model collapse. Our system is evaluated on a full-sized humanoid JAXON in the simulator. The resulting control policy demonstrates a wide range of locomotion patterns, including standing, push-recovery, squat walking, human-like straight-leg walking, and dynamic running. Notably, even in the absence of transition motions in the demonstration dataset, robots showcase an emerging ability to transit naturally between distinct locomotion patterns as desired speed changes.
In the trending research of fusing Large Language Models (LLMs) and robotics, we aim to pave the way for innovative development of AI systems that can enable Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) to seamlessly interact with humans in an intuitive manner. We propose OceanChat, a system that leverages a closed-loop LLM-guided task and motion planning framework to tackle AUV missions in the wild. LLMs translate an abstract human command into a high-level goal, while a task planner further grounds the goal into a task sequence with logical constraints. To assist the AUV with understanding the task sequence, we utilize a motion planner to incorporate real-time Lagrangian data streams received by the AUV, thus mapping the task sequence into an executable motion plan. Considering the highly dynamic and partially known nature of the underwater environment, an event-triggered replanning scheme is developed to enhance the system's robustness towards uncertainty. We also build a simulation platform HoloEco that generates photo-realistic simulation for a wide range of AUV applications. Experimental evaluation verifies that the proposed system can achieve improved performance in terms of both success rate and computation time. Project website: \url{//sites.google.com/view/oceanchat}
Transformers have achieved superior performances in many tasks in natural language processing and computer vision, which also intrigues great interests in the time series community. Among multiple advantages of transformers, the ability to capture long-range dependencies and interactions is especially attractive for time series modeling, leading to exciting progress in various time series applications. In this paper, we systematically review transformer schemes for time series modeling by highlighting their strengths as well as limitations through a new taxonomy to summarize existing time series transformers in two perspectives. From the perspective of network modifications, we summarize the adaptations of module level and architecture level of the time series transformers. From the perspective of applications, we categorize time series transformers based on common tasks including forecasting, anomaly detection, and classification. Empirically, we perform robust analysis, model size analysis, and seasonal-trend decomposition analysis to study how Transformers perform in time series. Finally, we discuss and suggest future directions to provide useful research guidance. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first work to comprehensively and systematically summarize the recent advances of Transformers for modeling time series data. We hope this survey will ignite further research interests in time series Transformers.
In the past decade, we have witnessed the rise of deep learning to dominate the field of artificial intelligence. Advances in artificial neural networks alongside corresponding advances in hardware accelerators with large memory capacity, together with the availability of large datasets enabled researchers and practitioners alike to train and deploy sophisticated neural network models that achieve state-of-the-art performance on tasks across several fields spanning computer vision, natural language processing, and reinforcement learning. However, as these neural networks become bigger, more complex, and more widely used, fundamental problems with current deep learning models become more apparent. State-of-the-art deep learning models are known to suffer from issues that range from poor robustness, inability to adapt to novel task settings, to requiring rigid and inflexible configuration assumptions. Ideas from collective intelligence, in particular concepts from complex systems such as self-organization, emergent behavior, swarm optimization, and cellular systems tend to produce solutions that are robust, adaptable, and have less rigid assumptions about the environment configuration. It is therefore natural to see these ideas incorporated into newer deep learning methods. In this review, we will provide a historical context of neural network research's involvement with complex systems, and highlight several active areas in modern deep learning research that incorporate the principles of collective intelligence to advance its current capabilities. To facilitate a bi-directional flow of ideas, we also discuss work that utilize modern deep learning models to help advance complex systems research. We hope this review can serve as a bridge between complex systems and deep learning communities to facilitate the cross pollination of ideas and foster new collaborations across disciplines.
Interpretability in machine learning (ML) is crucial for high stakes decisions and troubleshooting. In this work, we provide fundamental principles for interpretable ML, and dispel common misunderstandings that dilute the importance of this crucial topic. We also identify 10 technical challenge areas in interpretable machine learning and provide history and background on each problem. Some of these problems are classically important, and some are recent problems that have arisen in the last few years. These problems are: (1) Optimizing sparse logical models such as decision trees; (2) Optimization of scoring systems; (3) Placing constraints into generalized additive models to encourage sparsity and better interpretability; (4) Modern case-based reasoning, including neural networks and matching for causal inference; (5) Complete supervised disentanglement of neural networks; (6) Complete or even partial unsupervised disentanglement of neural networks; (7) Dimensionality reduction for data visualization; (8) Machine learning models that can incorporate physics and other generative or causal constraints; (9) Characterization of the "Rashomon set" of good models; and (10) Interpretable reinforcement learning. This survey is suitable as a starting point for statisticians and computer scientists interested in working in interpretable machine learning.
Deep learning has penetrated all aspects of our lives and brought us great convenience. However, the process of building a high-quality deep learning system for a specific task is not only time-consuming but also requires lots of resources and relies on human expertise, which hinders the development of deep learning in both industry and academia. To alleviate this problem, a growing number of research projects focus on automated machine learning (AutoML). In this paper, we provide a comprehensive and up-to-date study on the state-of-the-art AutoML. First, we introduce the AutoML techniques in details according to the machine learning pipeline. Then we summarize existing Neural Architecture Search (NAS) research, which is one of the most popular topics in AutoML. We also compare the models generated by NAS algorithms with those human-designed models. Finally, we present several open problems for future research.
Machine learning techniques have deeply rooted in our everyday life. However, since it is knowledge- and labor-intensive to pursue good learning performance, human experts are heavily involved in every aspect of machine learning. In order to make machine learning techniques easier to apply and reduce the demand for experienced human experts, automated machine learning (AutoML) has emerged as a hot topic with both industrial and academic interest. In this paper, we provide an up to date survey on AutoML. First, we introduce and define the AutoML problem, with inspiration from both realms of automation and machine learning. Then, we propose a general AutoML framework that not only covers most existing approaches to date but also can guide the design for new methods. Subsequently, we categorize and review the existing works from two aspects, i.e., the problem setup and the employed techniques. Finally, we provide a detailed analysis of AutoML approaches and explain the reasons underneath their successful applications. We hope this survey can serve as not only an insightful guideline for AutoML beginners but also an inspiration for future research.