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With the ubiquity of cellular phones, mobile applications with 2D barcodes have drawn a lot of attentions in recent years. When a user takes a barcode image with the camera in a mobile device, the captured image tends to be blurred due to camera shaking when the user presses the shutter. In addition, the captured image includes part of the complex background of the page with the barcode. In this paper, we point out that the above two issues, which have not been identified in previous works, deteriorate the accuracy of barcode recognition in the mobile computing. We then propose an efficient and effective algorithm to restore and extract 2D barcode from a complex background in a camera-shaken image. Compared with previous approaches, our algorithm outperforms in not only smaller running time but also higher accuracy of the barcode recognition in the mobile computing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  We explore in this paper a practicably interesting mining task to retrieve top-k (closed) itemsets in the presence of the memory constraint. Specifically, as opposed to most previous works that concentrate on improving the mining efficiency or on reducing the memory size by best effort, we first attempt to specify the available upper memory size that can be utilized by mining frequent itemsets. To comply with the upper bound of the memory consumption, two efficient algorithms, called MTK and MTK_Close, are devised for mining frequent itemsets and closed itemsets, respectively, without specifying the subtle minimum support. Instead, users only need to give a more human-understandable parameter, namely the desired number of frequent (closed) itemsets k. In practice, it is quite challenging to constrain the memory consumption while also efficiently retrieving top-k itemsets. To effectively achieve this, MTK and MTK_Close are devised as level-wise search algorithms, where the number of candidates being generated-and-tested in each database scan will be limited. A novel search approach, called δ-stair search, is utilized in MTK and MTK_Close to effectively assign the available memory for testing candidate itemsets with various itemset-lengths, which leads to a small number of required database scans. As demonstrated in the empirical study on real data and synthetic data, instead of only providing the flexibility of striking a compromise between the execution efficiency and the memory consumption, MTK and MTK_Close can both achieve high efficiency and have a constrained memory bound, showing the prominent advantage to be practical algorithms of mining frequent patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  In this paper, we identify and explore that the power-law relationship and the self-similar phenomenon appear in the itemset support distribution. The itemset support distribution refers to the distribution of the count of itemsets versus their supports. Exploring the characteristics of these natural phenomena is useful to many applications such as providing the direction of tuning the performance of the frequent-itemset mining. However, due to the explosive number of itemsets, it is prohibitively expensive to retrieve lots of itemsets before we identify the characteristics of the itemset support distribution in targeted data. As such, we also propose a valid and cost-effective algorithm, called algorithm PPL, to extract characteristics of the itemset support distribution. Furthermore, to fully explore the advantages of our discovery, we also propose novel mechanisms with the help of PPL to solve two important problems: (1) determining a subtle parameter for mining approximate frequent itemsets over data streams; and (2) determining the sufficient sample size for mining frequent patterns. As validated in our experimental results, PPL can efficiently and precisely identify the characteristics of the itemset support distribution in various real data. In addition, empirical studies also demonstrate that our mechanisms for those two challenging problems are in orders of magnitude better than previous works, showing the prominent advantage of PPL to be an important pre-processing means for mining applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  With the fast increase in Web activities, Web data mining has recently become an important research topic and is receiving a significant amount of interest from both academic and industrial environments. While existing methods are efficient for the mining of frequent path traversal patterns from the access information contained in a log file, these approaches are likely to over evaluate associations. Explicitly, most previous studies of mining path traversal patterns are based on the model of a uniform support threshold, where a single support threshold is used to determine frequent traversal patterns without taking into consideration such important factors as the length of a pattern, the positions of Web pages, and the importance of a particular pattern, etc. As a result, a low support threshold will lead to lots of uninteresting patterns derived whereas a high support threshold may cause some interesting patterns with lower supports to be ignored. In view of this, this paper broadens the horizon of frequent path traversal pattern mining by introducing a flexible model of mining Web traversal patterns with dynamic thresholds. Specifically, we study and apply the Markov chain model to provide the determination of support threshold of Web documents; and further, by properly employing some effective techniques devised for joining reference sequences, the proposed algorithm dynamic threshold miner (DTM) not only possesses the capability of mining with dynamic thresholds, but also significantly improves the execution efficiency as well as contributes to the incremental mining of Web traversal patterns. Performance of algorithm DTM and the extension of existing methods is comparatively analyzed with synthetic and real Web logs. It is shown that the option of algorithm DTM is very advantageous in reducing the number of unnecessary rules produced and leads to prominent performance improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  On-line analytical processing (OLAP) has become an important component in most data warehouse systems and decision support systems in recent years. In order to deal with the huge amount of data, highly complex queries and increasingly strict response time requirements, approximate query processing has been deemed a viable solution. Most works in this area, however, focus on the space efficiency and are unable to provide quality-guaranteed answers to queries. To remedy this, in this paper, we propose an efficient framework of DCT for dAta With error estimatioN, called DAWN, which focuses on answering range-sum queries from compressed OP-cubes transformed by DCT. Specifically, utilizing the techniques of Geometric series and Euler’s formula, we devise a robust summation function, called the GE function, to answer range queries in constant time, regardless of the number of data cells involved. Note that the GE function can estimate the summation of cosine functions precisely; thus the quality of the answers is superior to that of previous works. Furthermore, an estimator of errors based on the Brown noise assumption (BNA) is devised to provide tight bounds for answering range-sum queries. Our experiment results show that the DAWN framework is scalable to the selectivity of queries and the available storage space. With GE functions and the BNA method, the DAWN framework not only delivers high quality answers for range-sum queries, but also leads to shorter query response time due to its effectiveness in error estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  Grouping photos of the same event together is extremely useful for the management of personal photo collections. However, most methods cannot be applied to the problem of online event detection in embedded devices because they do not consider hardware constraints or a user’s photo-taking behavior. In this paper, we propose an efficient and effective event detection algorithm for managing personal photo collections in camera phones or digital cameras. The proposed algorithm fuses time and location information, which is deemed the most important information for personal photo management, and works in real time in embedded devices. We model event occurrences in a user’s photo-taking behavior as a Poisson process by imposing certain constraints on calculating the elapsed time. Location information is incorporated into event detection when confidence in a decision based on the Poisson process is not high enough. The algorithm is user-centric because it provides the unique capabilities of accepting and adjusting to user feedback. Our experiment results show that the proposed event detection method has the potential to support emerging multimedia applications in embedded devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract??In order to import the domain knowledge or application-dependent parameters into the data mining systems, constraint-based mining has attracted a lot of research attention recently. In this paper, the attributes employed to model the constraints are called constraint attributes and those attributes involved in the objective function to be optimized are called optimization attributes. The constrained clustering considered in this paper is conducted in such a way that the objective function of optimization attributes is optimized subject to the condition that the imposed constraint is satisfied. Explicitly, we address the problem of constrained clustering with numerical constraints, in which the constraint attribute values of any two data items in the same cluster are required to be within the corresponding constraint range. This numerical constrained clustering problem, however, cannot be dealt with by any conventional clustering algorithms. Consequently, we devise several effective and efficient algorithms to solve such a clustering problem. It is noted that due to the intrinsic nature of the numerical constrained clustering, there is an order dependency on the process of attaining the clustering, which in many cases degrades the clustering results. In view of this, we devise aprogressive constraint relaxationtechnique to remedy this drawback and improve the overall performance of clustering results. Explicitly, by using a smaller (tighter) constraint range in earlier iterations of merge, we will have more room to relax the constraint and seek for better solutions in subsequent iterations. It is empirically shown that the progressive constraint relaxation technique is able to improve not only the execution efficiency but also the clustering quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research issue of broadcasting has attracted a considerable amount of attention in a mobile computing system. By utilizing broadcast channels, a server is able to continuously and repeatedly broadcast data to mobile users. From these broadcast channels, mobile users obtain the data of interest efficiently and only need to wait for the required data to be present on the broadcast channel. Given the access frequencies of data items, one can design proper data allocation in the broadcast channels to reduce the average expected delay of data items. In practice, the data access frequencies may vary with time. We explore in this paper the problem of adjusting broadcast programs to effectively respond to the changes of data access frequencies, and develop an efficient algorithm DL to address this problem. Performance of algorithm DL is analyzed and a system simulator is developed to validate our results. Sensitivity analysis on several parameters, including the number of data items, the number of broadcast disks, and the variation of access frequencies, is conducted. It is shown by our results that the broadcast programs adjusted by algorithm DL are of very high quality and are in fact very close to the optimal ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research issue of broadcasting has attracted a considerable amount of attention in a mobile computing system. By utilizing broadcast channels, a server continuously and repeatedly broadcasts data to mobile users. These broadcast channels are also known as “broadcast disks” from which mobile users can retrieve data. Using broadcasting, mobile users can obtain the data of interest efficiently and only need to wait for the required data to present on the broadcast channel. The issue of designing proper data allocation in the broadcast disks is to reduce the average expected delay of all data items. We explore in this paper the problem of generating hierarchical broadcast programs with the data access frequencies and the number of broadcast disks in a broadcast disk array given. Specifically, we first transform the problem of generating hierarchical broadcast programs into the one of constructing a channel allocation tree with variant-fanout. By exploiting the feature of tree generation with variant-fanout, we develop a heuristic algorithm VFK to minimize the expected delay of data items in the broadcast program. In order to evaluate the solution quality obtained by algorithm VFK and compare its resulting broadcast program with the optimal one, we devise an algorithm OPT based on a guided search to obtain the optimal solution. Performance of these algorithms is comparatively analyzed. Sensitivity analysis on several parameters, including the number of data items and the number of broadcast disks, is conducted. It is shown by our simulation results that by exploiting the feature of variant-fanout in constructing the channel allocation tree, the solution obtained by algorithm VFK is of very high quality and is in fact very close to the optimal one resulted by algorithm OPT. Moreover, algorithm VFK is of very good scalability which is important for algorithm VFK to be of practical use to generate hierarchical broadcast programs dynamically in a mobile computing environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]