4 posts tagged with "neural networks"

Introduction:

For many years, people have been waiting for self-driving automobiles. Recent technological advancements have made this idea "possible".

One of the key technologies that made self-driving possible is deep learning. It's an incredibly flexible tool that can tackle nearly any problem; examples of its applications include the classification of images in Google Lens and proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider in physics.

A technology called deep learning can assist in resolving practically any kind of scientific or engineering issue.Convolutional neural networks (CNN), one of the deep learning algorithms used in self-driving automobiles, will be the main topic of this article.

How do self-driving cars work?

The Automatic Land Vehicle in Neural Network (ALVINN) was the initial self-driving car created in 1989. Neural networks were utilised for line detection, environment segmentation, self-navigation, and driving. It had limitations due to inadequate data and slow processing speeds, but it nevertheless functioned well.

Today's high-performance computers, graphics cards, and massive data sets make self-driving technology more potent than ever. It will improve road safety and lessen traffic congestion if it gains traction.

Self-driving automobiles are vehicles that can make decisions on their own. Data streams from many sensors, including cameras, LiDAR, RADAR, GPS, and inertia sensors, can be processed by them. Deep learning algorithms are then used to model this data and make decisions based on the context in which the car is operating.

A modular perception-planning-action pipeline for making driving decisions is depicted in the above figure. The various sensors that gather data from the surroundings are the main elements of this technique.

We must look at the following four key components in order to comprehend how self-driving automobiles function:

1. Perception

2. Localization

3. Prediction

4. Decision Making

   • High-level path planning
   • Behaviour Arbitration
   • Motion Controllers

1. Perception

Perception is one of the most crucial characteristics that self-driving cars need to possess since it allows the vehicle to view its surroundings and identify and categorise the objects it observes. The automobile needs to be able to identify items quickly in order to make wise selections.

Thus, the vehicle must be able to recognize and categorise a wide range of objects, including humans, road signs, parking spaces, lanes, and walkways. Furthermore, it must be aware of the precise separation between itself and the surrounding things. Beyond seeing and categorising, perception allows the system to assess distance and determine whether to brake or slow down.

Three sensors are required for a self-driving car to have such a high level of perception:

• Camera
• LiDAR
• RADAR

Camera:

The car's camera gives it vision, allowing it to perform a variety of functions like segmentation, classification, and localization. The resolution and accuracy of the cameras' representation of the surroundings must be good.

The cameras are stitched together to create a 360-degree image of the surrounding area, ensuring that the car receives visual input from all four directions. These cameras offer both a short-range view for more concentrated perception and a wide-range vision that extends up to 200 metres

The camera also offers a panoramic picture for enhanced decision-making in some jobs, such as parking.

Even while the cameras perform all perception-related functions, they are essentially useless in harsh weather situations like dense fog, torrential rain, and especially at night. All the cameras record in harsh weather circumstances are sounds and anomalies, which can be fatal.

We need sensors that can estimate distance and function in the absence of light in order to get around these restrictions.

LiDAR:

Light Detection and Ranging, or LiDAR for short, is a technique that uses a laser beam to determine an item's distance by timing how long it takes for the beam to be reflected off of an object.

The automobile can only get photographs of its surroundings from a camera. It acquires depth in the photos when paired with the LiDAR sensor, giving it an instantaneous 3D sense of the environment around the vehicle.

RADAR:

In many military and commercial applications, radio detection and ranging, or RADAR, is an essential component. The military was the first to use it for object detection. It uses radio wave waves to calculate distance. It is now a standard feature of many cars and is essential to self-driving cars.

Since RADARs operate in all environments due to their use of radio waves rather than lasers, they are very effective.To produce accurate judgments and forecasts, the RADAR data needs to be cleansed. Thresholding is the process of separating weak signals from strong ones. Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT) are another tool we employ to filter and analyse the data.

2. Localization

Self-driving car localization algorithms use a technique called visual odometry (VO) to determine the position and orientation of the vehicle while it navigates.

Vocabulary entails matching significant spots in a series of consecutive video frames. The salient features of each frame are fed into a mapping algorithm. Roads, pedestrians, and other adjacent items can be classified with the aid of mapping algorithms like Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), which calculates the position and orientation of each object in relation to the previous frame.

Deep learning is typically used to identify various objects and enhance voice over network (VO) performance. A few frameworks that employ point data to estimate the 3D location and orientation are neural networks, such PoseNet and VLocNet++. As demonstrated in the graphic below, scene semantics can be derived from these approximated 3D coordinates and orientations.

3. Prediction

Self-driving cars are capable of segmentation, localization, object detection, image classification, and other tasks thanks to their sensors. The automobile can forecast the item around it using many types of data representation.

Images and cloud data points from LiDARs and RADARs can be modelled by a deep learning system during training. The vehicle can be made ready for any scenario that may entail stopping, braking, slowing down, changing lanes, and other manoeuvres by using the same model during inference.

Deep learning is used in self-driving automobiles to perform kinematic manoeuvres, improve perception, localise itself in the environment, and understand complicated vision tasks. This guarantees both a simple commute and road safety.

4. Decision making

Making decisions is essential for self-driving automobiles. They require a precise and dynamic system in an unpredictable setting. It must consider the fact that human decision-making might be unexpected and that not all sensor data will be accurate when driving. These things are not directly measurable. We are unable to accurately forecast them, even if we could quantify them.

Convolutional neural networks, or CNNs,: what are they?

One kind of deep learning method that is frequently utilised in computer vision applications is the convolutional neural network (CNN). Capturing the spatial correlations between pixels in an image is the fundamental notion behind CNNs. A number of procedures, including convolution, pooling, and activation functions, are used to achieve this. The network then makes advantage of these connections to categorise the picture into distinct groups, such objects in a picture.

Where:

the operator * represents the convolution operation,

• w is the filter matrix and b is the bias,
• x is the input,
• y is the output.

In practical application, the filter matrix dimensions are typically 3 by 3 or 5 by 5. The filter matrix will continuously update itself to obtain an appropriate weight throughout the training phase. CNN's shared weights are one of its characteristics. Two distinct network transformations can be represented by the same weight parameters. By using a common parameter, the network may learn more varied feature representations while conserving a significant amount of processing space.

Most of the time, a nonlinear activation function receives the CNN output. The network can solve linear inseparable problems thanks to the activation function, and these functions can represent high-dimensional manifolds in lower-dimensional manifolds. The activation functions Sigmoid, Tanh, and ReLU are frequently utilised and are as follows:

The ReLU is the recommended activation function since it converges more quickly than the other activation functions, which is important to note. Furthermore, the max-pooling layer modifies the convolution layer's output by retaining additional details from the input image, such as the texture and backdrop.

Three crucial characteristics of CNNs are what make them adaptable and a key element of self-driving cars:

• local receptive fields,
• shared weights,
• spatial sampling.

HydraNet – semantic segmentation for self-driving cars by Tesla:

In 2018, Ravi et al. introduced HydraNet. It was created to increase computational efficiency during the inference process for semantic segmentation.

Because of its dynamic architecture, HydraNets can have several CNN networks, each with a distinct task assigned to it. We refer to these networks or blocks as branches. Various inputs are fed into a task-specific CNN network using HydraNet's concept.

Consider the scenario of autonomous vehicles. An input dataset may consist of static surroundings such as roadside trees and railings, another of the road and lanes, still another of the road and traffic signals, and so forth. Several branches have trained these inputs. The gate selects which branches to execute during the inference period, and the combiner compiles branch outputs before rendering a judgement.

Due to the challenge of separating input for each task during inference, Tesla has made minor modifications to this network. The engineers at Tesla created a shared backbone as a solution to that issue. Modified ResNet-50 blocks are typically used as the common backbones.

The whole object's data set is used to train this HydraNet. The model can forecast task-specific outcomes since it has task-specific heads. The heads are built using an architecture for semantic segmentation similar to the U-Net.

In order to provide the Tesla HydraNet with considerably more dimensionality for accurate navigation, it can also project a birds-eye view, or a three-dimensional representation of the surroundings from any angle. It's critical to understand that LiDAR sensors are not used by Tesla. It just has two sensors: a radar and a camera. Tesla's hydranet is so effective that it can stitch together all the visual data from the 8 cameras in the car to produce depth perception, even though LiDAR expressly creates it for the vehicle.

Conclusion:

Convolutional neural networks, or CNNs, are essential to the development of self-driving automobiles, to sum up. CNNs contribute to improved driving accuracy and safety by utilising image recognition to comprehend the surrounding environment. The application of CNNs in self-driving cars is probably going to keep developing and getting better as long as technology keeps going forward, which will make these vehicles even more practical in the long run.

navan.ai has a no-code platform - nstudio.navan.ai where users can build computer vision models within minutes without any coding. Developers can sign up for free on nstudio.navan.ai

Want to add Vision AI machine vision to your business? Reach us on https://navan.ai/contact-us for a free consultation.

Introduction:

A machine's capacity to replicate human vision is known as computer vision. Healthcare is not expected given how this technology has affected or even changed practically every other industry in the world. It is anticipated that the worldwide market for computer vision solutions in the healthcare industry would expand dramatically from $262 million in 2019 to $2.4 billion by 2026.

Medical professionals now have superpowers like unwavering focus and unceasing observation because of advancements in computer vision, particularly in the area of object detection. For instance, a machine's error rate is about 3.5%, while a human's is 5%. In short, these tasks can be performed more effectively by computer vision object detection and recognition.

The most recent advancements in object recognition technology are attributed to deep learning, or the use of multi-layer neural networks in machine learning algorithms.The accuracy of object detection on both public and private data sets has greatly increased thanks to deep learning.

What is Computer Vision?

The goal of the artificial intelligence (AI) and computer science discipline of computer vision is to give computers the same ability as human vision to analyse and comprehend visual information from their environment. It entails creating algorithms and systems that can automatically recognize, evaluate, and extrapolate important data from pictures or movies.

Computer vision aims to emulate and even exceed human visual perception, allowing computers to carry out tasks including image production, object detection, object classification, and scene interpretation. It includes a range of approaches and strategies from deep learning, machine learning, pattern recognition, and image processing.

Key components of computer vision include:

1. Image acquisition is the process of gathering visual information with the aid of scanners, cameras, and other sensors.

2. Preprocessing: Improving the quality and utility of visual information by purifying and enriching raw image data. This could include operations like colour normalisation, image scaling, and noise reduction.

3. Finding pertinent patterns, edges, textures, shapes, or other distinguishing elements in photos that can be utilised for additional investigation and identification is known as feature extraction.

4. Detecting and recognizing items or entities in photographs, such as faces, objects, text, or landmarks, is known as object recognition and detection. This could include tracking, segmentation, classification, and object localization.

5. Scene Understanding: The ability to interpret visual data at a higher level by knowing the context and connections between various items or aspects within a scene.

6. Neural Networks and Deep Learning: Complex features can be automatically learned and extracted from unprocessed visual input by using neural network topologies like convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and deep learning algorithms.

7. 3D vision is the use of computer vision techniques to the analysis and comprehension of three-dimensional surroundings, structures, and forms from various perspectives.

Numerous industries, including healthcare, automotive, retail, agriculture, surveillance, entertainment, and more, use computer vision. It is essential to the operation of many cutting-edge technologies, including augmented reality, facial recognition software, medical imaging, autonomous cars, and manufacturing quality control.

All things considered, computer vision gives robots the ability to see and comprehend the visual world, creating new avenues for automation, creativity, and human-computer connection.

Confidentiality in Computer Vision:

In computer vision, confidentiality is the safeguarding of private visual information so that it cannot be viewed, accessed, or misused by unauthorised people or institutions. Maintaining secrecy is essential because of the nature of visual information, which might contain private photos, medical scans, surveillance film, and secret visual data in sectors like manufacturing or defence.

Key considerations for confidentiality in computer vision:

1. Data Encryption: To avoid unwanted access, visual data should be encrypted while it's in transit and at rest. Images or video streams can be encrypted using algorithms to make sure that only authorised persons possessing the right decryption keys can view or handle the material.

2. Access Control: Only authorised workers should have access to visual data. Depending on their roles and responsibilities, role-based access control mechanisms can be used to make sure that users have the right authorization to view or modify particular kinds of visual data.

3. Anonymization and pseudonymization: Sensitive data, such as faces, licence plates, or recognizable locations, might be anonymized or pseudonymized in visual data to preserve people's privacy. This entails maintaining the data's analytical utility by masking or substituting generic identifiers for identifiable aspects.

4. Safe Storage and Transmission: It is recommended that visual data be kept in safe repositories that have strong encryption and access controls. To avoid interception or eavesdropping, secure communication protocols like HTTPS or VPNs should be used while sending visual data over networks.

5. Data Minimization: Only gather and save the visual data that is required to achieve the desired outcome. Reducing the quantity of data gathered helps ensure compliance with privacy laws like GDPR and HIPAA and lowers the exposure risk in the case of a security breach.

6. Auditing and Record-keeping: Keep thorough records of all visual data access, including who accessed what, when, and why. Auditing tools are useful for keeping an eye on and tracking user activity in order to spot any suspicious activity or unauthorised access.

7. Secure Development methods: When developing and putting into use computer vision systems, adhere to secure software development methods. This include carrying out security audits, following best practices for coding, and routinely patching and updating software to fix security flaws.

8. Regulatory Compliance: Make sure that all applicable privacy laws, industry-specific rules, including HIPAA, CCPA, and other regulations are followed when processing visual data. Recognize the privacy and data protection laws in the jurisdictions where the visual data is processed and gathered.

What is Deep Learning?

The term "deep" refers to a subset of machine learning that uses multiple-layered artificial neural networks to extract complex patterns and representations from input. It attempts to emulate the neural networks in the human brain in order to process vast amounts of data, derive significant insights, or carry out certain jobs.

Among the essential traits of deep learning are:

1. Neural Networks: Deep learning models consist of hierarchically arranged, interconnected layers of artificial neurons. Every layer takes in data from the layer before it, runs it through a number of mathematical operations, and then sends the result to the layer behind it.

2. Deep Learning Architectures: Typically, numerous hidden layers sit between the input and output layers in a deep learning architecture. As information moves through successive layers, these deep architectures allow the models to acquire ever more abstract and intricate representations of the incoming data.

3. Feature Learning: Deep learning models gradually extract pertinent features at various levels of abstraction by automatically learning hierarchical representations of the input. Because the models are able to learn to extract meaningful features straight from raw data, there is no longer a requirement for human feature engineering.

4. End-to-End Learning: To produce output predictions or carry out particular tasks in an end-to-end fashion, deep learning models have the ability to learn directly from unprocessed input data. This is in contrast to conventional machine learning techniques, which frequently call for tedious preprocessing and feature extraction procedures.

5. Scalability: Thanks to developments in parallel computing, distributed training methodologies, and the availability of potent hardware accelerators like GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) and TPUs (Tensor Processing Units), deep learning models can scale successfully to handle huge and complicated datasets.

6. Representation Learning: Deep learning models pick up the ability to automatically identify and depict the patterns and underlying structure in the data. Because of this, they are excellent at tasks like speech recognition, picture recognition, and natural language processing.

What does the healthcare industry stand to gain from computer vision?

In the healthcare industry, computer vision is used to enhance medical procedures and treatments, expedite healthcare research, and enhance patient experiences in general. Additionally, it helps medical practitioners to decide on patient care more intelligently.

High-tech cameras and sensors are combined with AI-based technology in the healthcare industry to display and extract data for a range of uses in treatment, research, and administration of healthcare.

Applications of Computer Vision in Healthcare:

1. AI tumour identification

The term AI tumour detection describes the process of automatically identifying and analysing tumours in medical imaging data, such as X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, and mammograms, using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and methodologies. With the use of AI, tumour diagnostics could become much more accurate and efficient, resulting in earlier detection and better patient outcomes.

2. Better image analysis

Computer vision can diagnose medical images with far greater precision, speed, and accuracy while making fewer mistakes by identifying patterns in the images. From medical photographs, information that is invisible to the human eye may be extracted.

Furthermore, computer vision can be viewed as a viable remedy due to the scarcity of radiologists and MRI technicians in the medical field.

3. Computer vision for adherence to hospital hygiene

Clinical personnel can detect places that require more regular cleaning by using computer vision to enable real-time surveillance of high-touch areas including patient beds, door knobs, and handrails. Furthermore, AI vision can offer insightful data on patient usage trends, allowing building administrators to assess personnel movement and pinpoint areas that may require more resources or cleaning.

Managers of hygiene can use this to streamline procedures and lower the chance of contamination. In order to make sure that all safety procedures are followed, computer vision can also be utilised to keep an eye on what hospital employees and visitors are doing. It can detect when someone enters a room without wearing protective gear or when a medical professional enters a patient's room without first washing their hands.

4. Smart operating facilities

The process of recording surgical operations that entail a variety of repetitive and error-prone jobs can be automated with computer vision. Approximately 1500 surgical procedures occur in the US each year, and computer vision can follow surgical instruments to solve this problem. Surgeons often forget equipment inside patients.

5. Deep learning for imaging in medicine

Medical personnel may now make better decisions about patient care thanks to the usage of computer vision in a variety of healthcare applications. One technique that does this is medical imaging, also known as medical image analysis. It allows for a more precise diagnosis by visualising specific organs and tissues.

Medical image analysis makes it simpler for physicians and surgeons to see into the patient's body and spot any problems or anomalies. Medical imaging encompasses various areas such as endoscopy, MRI, ultrasound, X-ray radiography, and more.

6. Astute medical education

Medical skill training and diagnostics both make extensive use of computer vision. Surgeons today rely on more than just the old-fashioned method of learning skills through hands-on experience in the operating room.

On the other hand, simulation-based surgical platforms have become a useful tool for surgical skill assessment and training. Before going into the operating room, trainees can practise their surgical abilities with surgical simulation.

Before operating on patients, they can better grasp patient care and safety thanks to the thorough feedback and performance evaluation they receive. Additionally, computer vision can be utilised to measure activity levels and identify frantic movement to evaluate the quality of the procedure.

7. AI diagnostics for medicine

Medical diagnostics and imaging have grown in significance in today's healthcare system because they offer priceless information that aids in the detection and diagnosis of illnesses by medical professionals. Recent developments in computer vision have made diagnostics in the medical field quicker and more precise.

Medical photographs can be rapidly examined for disease indicators using computer vision algorithms, allowing for more precise diagnoses to be made in a fraction of the time and money compared to more traditional techniques. By avoiding needless treatments, assisted or automated diagnostics contribute to a decrease in healthcare expenses overall.

Algorithms that recognize patterns in images have demonstrated remarkable success in identifying diseases; for instance, they have assisted doctors in detecting subtle alterations in tumours that may indicate cancer.

8. Monitoring patient rehabilitation at home

After a medical condition, many patients would rather recover at home than in a hospital. Medical professionals can visually monitor their patients' progress and administer the required physical therapy to them with the use of computer vision software. Such home training is more cost-effective in addition to being more convenient.

Furthermore, non-intrusive remote patient or senior monitoring can be facilitated by computer vision technologies. Deep learning-based human fall detection systems, which use computer vision to detect falls, are a popular area of research that aims to lower care costs and dependency in the senior population.

9. Computer vision in Ophthalmology

In the medical field, the pursuit of AI vision for Personalised Treatments for Patients has been continuous. It comprises applying technology to more fully comprehend and identify specific diseases and ailments, as well as to develop individualised, case-by-case more effective therapies.

AI analysis of medical imaging technologies, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT), aids in the individual diagnosis and assessment of diseases, recommending customised treatments based on each patient's specific medical requirements.

10. Using facial recognition to identify patients

Using computer algorithms, facial recognition technology compares digital image facial traits to health records to identify current patients. Facial recognition software compares two or more digital photos of faces to determine if they belong to the same person.

Numerous healthcare applications have made use of this technology, including the speedy and accurate verification of patient identities during hospital admissions, patient safety by preventing errors in clinical practice, aiding in the prevention of medical identity fraud, streamlining the registration process, and preventing unauthorised access to sensitive data or areas.

What's Next for Healthcare and Computer Vision?

There is a lot of promise for computer vision in medical imaging and healthcare. Nonetheless, a growing number of medical use cases are now feasible due to the rapid advancement of technology.

However, computer vision in health care applications will need to work via privacy-preserving deep learning and image recognition. Edge AI will therefore play a significant role in transferring deep learning from cloud-based systems to edge devices.

Edge devices evaluate video feeds in real time without transferring sensitive visual data to the cloud by handling the machine learning activities on-device.

Conclusion:

The fast development of computer vision technologies has benefited and pioneered the healthcare sector. Numerous medical specialties have benefited from computer vision in healthcare, saving thousands of lives through improved diagnosis, early identification of health conditions, and more effective treatment strategies.

Computer vision systems in healthcare have proven beneficial to medical practitioners as well as their patients. Computer vision aids in lowering the number of diagnostic errors made by physicians. By picking up on even the smallest irregularities and variances that doctors would miss during manual exams, it can also reduce false negatives. navan.ai has a no-code platform - nstudio.navan.ai where users can build computer vision models within minutes without any coding. Developers can sign up for free on nstudio.navan.ai

Want to add Vision AI machine vision to your business? Reach us on https://navan.ai/contact-us for a free consultation.

Introduction

A neural network is a type of computer model that draws inspiration from the composition and operations of the human brain. It's a basic idea in artificial intelligence and machine learning, applied to problems including pattern recognition, clustering, regression, and classification.

Introduction

The study and processing of digital images is the main emphasis of the computer science and engineering discipline of image processing. It entails the enhancement, transformation, or extraction of information from images through the use of algorithms and procedures. Applications for image processing can be found in many fields, including entertainment, remote sensing, medical, and surveillance.