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The digitization of complex technical systems, such as Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs), is crucial for efficient maintenance and operation of complex systems in hydraulic and process engineering. Previous approaches often rely on separate modules that analyze diagram elements individually, neglecting the diagram's overall structure. We address this limitation by proposing a novel approach that utilizes the Relationformer, a state-of-the-art deep learning architecture, to extract graphs from P&IDs. Our method leverages the ability of the Relationformer to simultaneously detect objects and their relationships in images, making it suitable for the task of graph extraction from engineering diagrams. We apply our proposed approach to both real-world and synthetically created P&ID datasets, and evaluate its effectiveness by comparing it with a modular digitization approach based on recent literature. We present PID2Graph, the first publicly accessible P&ID dataset featuring comprehensive labels for the graph structure, including symbols, nodes and their connections that is used for evaluation. To understand the effect of patching and stitching of both of the approaches, we compare values before and after merging the patches. For the real-world data, the Relationformer achieves convincing results, outperforming the modular digitization approach for edge detection by more than 25%. Our work provides a comprehensive framework for assessing the performance of P&ID digitization methods and opens up new avenues for research in this area using transformer architectures. The P&ID dataset used for evaluation will be published and publicly available upon acceptance of the paper.

Developing robust drone detection systems is often constrained by the limited availability of large-scale annotated training data and the high costs associated with real-world data collection. However, leveraging synthetic data generated via game engine-based simulations provides a promising and cost-effective solution to overcome this issue. Therefore, we present SynDroneVision, a synthetic dataset specifically designed for RGB-based drone detection in surveillance applications. Featuring diverse backgrounds, lighting conditions, and drone models, SynDroneVision offers a comprehensive training foundation for deep learning algorithms. To evaluate the dataset's effectiveness, we perform a comparative analysis across a selection of recent YOLO detection models. Our findings demonstrate that SynDroneVision is a valuable resource for real-world data enrichment, achieving notable enhancements in model performance and robustness, while significantly reducing the time and costs of real-world data acquisition. SynDroneVision will be publicly released upon paper acceptance., Comment: Accepted at the 2025 IEEE/CVF Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV)

Interferometric displacement measurements, especially in space interferometry applications, face challenges from thermal expansion. Bonded assemblies of ultra-low thermal expansion glass-ceramics offer a solution; however, transitioning from light transport in fibers to free beam propagation presents a notable challenge. These experiments often need an interface to convert between laser beams propagating through fiber optics into a well-defined free beam and vice versa. These interfaces must also be made of rigid glass pieces that can be bonded to a glass base plate. Current designs for these fiber collimators, often called fiber injector optical sub-assemblies, require multiple glass parts fabricated to very tight tolerances and assembled with special alignment tools. We present a simplified quasi-monolithic fiber collimator that can generate a well-collimated laser beam. The complexity and tolerances of bonding are reduced by combining the alignment of the fiber mode to the imaging lens in one step with active mode control: the welding of the fiber to the glass body. We produce several of these designs and test that the desired light field is achieved, its profile is described as a Gaussian beam, and the beam-pointing stability is acceptable for such a piece. In each case, they perform at least as well as a standard commercial fiber collimator. These Quasi Monolithic Fiber Collimators offer a promising and easy-to-implement solution to convert between free beam and fiber-coupled lasers in experiments sensitive to long term thermal drifts., Comment: TO be Submitted to optics applied

Predominant methods for image-based drone detection frequently rely on employing generic object detection algorithms like YOLOv5. While proficient in identifying drones against homogeneous backgrounds, these algorithms often struggle in complex, highly textured environments. In such scenarios, drones seamlessly integrate into the background, creating camouflage effects that adversely affect the detection quality. To address this issue, we introduce a novel deep learning architecture called YOLO-FEDER FusionNet. Unlike conventional approaches, YOLO-FEDER FusionNet combines generic object detection methods with the specialized strength of camouflage object detection techniques to enhance drone detection capabilities. Comprehensive evaluations of YOLO-FEDER FusionNet show the efficiency of the proposed model and demonstrate substantial improvements in both reducing missed detections and false alarms., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 6 tables, to be published in the conference proceedings of the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP)

Consider a binary statistical hypothesis testing problem, where $n$ independent and identically distributed random variables $Z^n$ are either distributed according to the null hypothesis $P$ or the alternative hypothesis $Q$, and only $P$ is known. A well-known test that is suitable for this case is the so-called Hoeffding test, which accepts $P$ if the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence between the empirical distribution of $Z^n$ and $P$ is below some threshold. This work characterizes the first and second-order terms of the type-II error probability for a fixed type-I error probability for the Hoeffding test as well as for divergence tests, where the KL divergence is replaced by a general divergence. It is demonstrated that, irrespective of the divergence, divergence tests achieve the first-order term of the Neyman-Pearson test, which is the optimal test when both $P$ and $Q$ are known. In contrast, the second-order term of divergence tests is strictly worse than that of the Neyman-Pearson test. It is further demonstrated that divergence tests with an invariant divergence achieve the same second-order term as the Hoeffding test, but divergence tests with a non-invariant divergence may outperform the Hoeffding test for some alternative hypotheses $Q$. Potentially, this behavior could be exploited by a composite hypothesis test with partial knowledge of the alternative hypothesis $Q$ by tailoring the divergence of the divergence test to the set of possible alternative hypotheses., Comment: Submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

Handling entirely unknown data is a challenge for any deployed classifier. Classification models are typically trained on a static pre-defined dataset and are kept in the dark for the open unassigned feature space. As a result, they struggle to deal with out-of-distribution data during inference. Addressing this task on the class-level is termed open-set recognition (OSR). However, most OSR methods are inherently limited, as they train closed-set classifiers and only adapt the downstream predictions to OSR. This work presents LORD, a framework to Leverage Open-set Recognition by exploiting unknown Data. LORD explicitly models open space during classifier training and provides a systematic evaluation for such approaches. We identify three model-agnostic training strategies that exploit background data and applied them to well-established classifiers. Due to LORD's extensive evaluation protocol, we consistently demonstrate improved recognition of unknown data. The benchmarks facilitate in-depth analysis across various requirement levels. To mitigate dependency on extensive and costly background datasets, we explore mixup as an off-the-shelf data generation technique. Our experiments highlight mixup's effectiveness as a substitute for background datasets. Lightweight constraints on mixup synthesis further improve OSR performance., Comment: Accepted at ICCV 2023 Workshop (Out-Of-Distribution Generalization in Computer Vision)

Dynamic environments require adaptive applications. One particular machine learning problem in dynamic environments is open world recognition. It characterizes a continuously changing domain where only some classes are seen in one batch of the training data and such batches can only be learned incrementally. Open world recognition is a demanding task that is, to the best of our knowledge, addressed by only a few methods. This work introduces a modification of the widely known Extreme Value Machine (EVM) to enable open world recognition. Our proposed method extends the EVM with a partial model fitting function by neglecting unaffected space during an update. This reduces the training time by a factor of 28. In addition, we provide a modified model reduction using weighted maximum K-set cover to strictly bound the model complexity and reduce the computational effort by a factor of 3.5 from 2.1 s to 0.6 s. In our experiments, we rigorously evaluate openness with two novel evaluation protocols. The proposed method achieves superior accuracy of about 12 % and computational efficiency in the tasks of image classification and face recognition., Comment: Accepted at ICPR 2022

We consider a binary statistical hypothesis testing problem, where $n$ independent and identically distributed random variables $Z^n$ are either distributed according to the null hypothesis $P$ or the alternate hypothesis $Q$, and only $P$ is known. For this problem, a well-known test is the Hoeffding test, which accepts $P$ if the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence between the empirical distribution of $Z^n$ and $P$ is below some threshold. In this paper, we consider Hoeffding-like tests, where the KL divergence is replaced by other divergences, and characterize, for a large class of divergences, the first and second-order terms of the type-II error for a fixed type-I error. Since the considered class includes the KL divergence, we obtain the second-order term of the Hoeffiding test as a special case., Comment: 26 pages. Submitted to the 2022 IEEE Information Theory Workshop

This paper considers a Gaussian multiple-access channel with random user activity where the total number of users $\ell_n$ and the average number of active users $k_n$ may grow with the blocklength $n$. For this channel, it studies the maximum number of bits that can be transmitted reliably per unit-energy as a function of $\ell_n$ and $k_n$. When all users are active with probability one, i.e., $\ell_n = k_n$, it is demonstrated that if $k_n$ is of an order strictly below $n/\log n$, then each user can achieve the single-user capacity per unit-energy $(\log e)/N_0$ (where $N_0/ 2$ is the noise power) by using an orthogonal-access scheme. In contrast, if $k_n$ is of an order strictly above $n/\log n$, then the capacity per unit-energy is zero. Consequently, there is a sharp transition between orders of growth where interference-free communication is feasible and orders of growth where reliable communication at a positive rate per unit-energy is infeasible. It is further demonstrated that orthogonal-access schemes in combination with orthogonal codebooks, which achieve the capacity per unit-energy when the number of users is bounded, can be strictly suboptimal. When the user activity is random, i.e., when $\ell_n$ and $k_n$ are different, it is demonstrated that if $k_n\log \ell_n$ is sublinear in $n$, then each user can achieve the single-user capacity per unit-energy $(\log e)/N_0$. Conversely, if $k_n\log \ell_n$ is superlinear in $n$, then the capacity per unit-energy is zero. Consequently, there is again a sharp transition between orders of growth where interference-free communication is feasible and orders of growth where reliable communication at a positive rate is infeasible that depends on the asymptotic behaviours of both $\ell_n$ and $k_n$. It is further demonstrated that orthogonal-access schemes, which are optimal when $\ell_n = k_n$, can be strictly suboptimal., Comment: 50 pages. Submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. Revised paper according to the comments by the reviewers. This article supersedes our previous submissions arXiv:1904.11742 and arXiv:2005.07436

DevOps describes a method to reorganize the way different disciplines in software engineering work together to speed up software delivery. However, the introduction of DevOps-methods to organisations is a complex task. A successful introduction results in a set of structured process descriptions. Despite the structure, this process leaves margin for error: Especially security issues are addressed in individual stages, without consideration of the interdependence. Furthermore, applying DevOps-methods to distributed entities, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) is difficult as the architecture is tailormade for desktop and cloud resources. In this work, an overview of tooling employed in the stages of DevOps processes is introduced. Gaps in terms of security or applicability to the IoT are derived. Based on these gaps, solutions that are being developed in the course of the research project SCRATCh are presented and discussed in terms of benefit to DevOps-environments., Comment: Post print of a paper presented at the 1st USDAI workshop and published in the SAFECOMP 2020 Workshop proceedings

We consider a Gaussian multiple-access channel with random user activity where the total number of users $\ell_n$ and the average number of active users $k_n$ may be unbounded. For this channel, we characterize the maximum number of bits that can be transmitted reliably per unit-energy in terms of $\ell_n$ and $k_n$. We show that if $k_n\log \ell_n$ is sublinear in $n$, then each user can achieve the single-user capacity per unit-energy. Conversely, if $k_n\log \ell_n$ is superlinear in $n$, then the capacity per unit-energy is zero. We further demonstrate that orthogonal-access schemes, which are optimal when all users are active with probability one, can be strictly suboptimal., Comment: Presented in part at the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT) 2020

We consider a Gaussian multiple-access channel where the number of transmitters grows with the blocklength $n$. For this setup, the maximum number of bits that can be transmitted reliably per unit-energy is analyzed. We show that if the number of users is of an order strictly above $n/\log n$, then the users cannot achieve any positive rate per unit-energy. In contrast, if the number of users is of order strictly below $n/\log n$, then each user can achieve the single-user capacity per unit-energy $(\log e)/N_0$ (where $N_0/ 2$ is the noise power) by using an orthogonal access scheme such as time division multiple access. We further demonstrate that orthogonal codebooks, which achieve the capacity per unit-energy when the number of users is bounded, can be strictly suboptimal., Comment: This work will be presented in part at 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, Paris, France

In recent years, the derivation of nonasymptotic converse and achievability bounds on the maximum coding rate as a function of the error probability and blocklength has gained attention in the information theory literature. While these bounds are accurate for many scenarios of interest, they need to be evaluated numerically for most wireless channels of practical interest, and their evaluation is computationally demanding. This paper presents saddlepoint approximations of state-of-the-art converse and achievability bounds for noncoherent, single-antenna, Rayleigh block-fading channels. These approximations can be calculated efficiently and are shown to be accurate for SNR values as small as 0 dB and blocklengths of 168 channel uses or more., Comment: 32 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. Manuscript revised according to minor comments made by the reviewers

This paper studies a bursty interference channel, where the presence/absence of interference is modeled by a block-i.i.d.\ Bernoulli process that stays constant for a duration of $T$ symbols (referred to as coherence block) and then changes independently to a new state. We consider both a quasi-static setup, where the interference state remains constant during the whole transmission of the codeword, and an ergodic setup, where a codeword spans several coherence blocks. For the quasi-static setup, we study the largest rate of a coding strategy that provides reliable communication at a basic rate and allows an increased (opportunistic) rate when there is no interference. For the ergodic setup, we study the largest achievable rate. We study how non-causal knowledge of the interference state, referred to as channel-state information (CSI), affects the achievable rates. We derive converse and achievability bounds for (i) local CSI at the receiver-side only; (ii) local CSI at the transmitter- and receiver-side, and (iii) global CSI at all nodes. Our bounds allow us to identify when interference burstiness is beneficial and in which scenarios global CSI outperforms local CSI. The joint treatment of the quasi-static and ergodic setup further allows for a thorough comparison of these two setups., Comment: 67 pages, 39 figures

While an increasing interest in deep models for single-image depth estimation methods can be observed, established schemes for their evaluation are still limited. We propose a set of novel quality criteria, allowing for a more detailed analysis by focusing on specific characteristics of depth maps. In particular, we address the preservation of edges and planar regions, depth consistency, and absolute distance accuracy. In order to employ these metrics to evaluate and compare state-of-the-art single-image depth estimation approaches, we provide a new high-quality RGB-D dataset. We used a DSLR camera together with a laser scanner to acquire high-resolution images and highly accurate depth maps. Experimental results show the validity of our proposed evaluation protocol.

The authors have recently defined the R\'enyi information dimension rate $d(\{X_t\})$ of a stationary stochastic process $\{X_t,\,t\in\mathbb{Z}\}$ as the entropy rate of the uniformly-quantized process divided by minus the logarithm of the quantizer step size $1/m$ in the limit as $m\to\infty$ (B. Geiger and T. Koch, "On the information dimension rate of stochastic processes," in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Inf. Theory (ISIT), Aachen, Germany, June 2017). For Gaussian processes with a given spectral distribution function $F_X$, they showed that the information dimension rate equals the Lebesgue measure of the set of harmonics where the derivative of $F_X$ is positive. This paper extends this result to multivariate Gaussian processes with a given matrix-valued spectral distribution function $F_{\mathbf{X}}$. It is demonstrated that the information dimension rate equals the average rank of the derivative of $F_{\mathbf{X}}$. As a side result, it is shown that the scale and translation invariance of information dimension carries over from random variables to stochastic processes., Comment: This work will be presented in part at the 2018 International Zurich Seminar on Information and Communication

In this paper, we analyze the tradeoff between coding rate and asymptotic performance of a class of generalized low-density parity-check (GLDPC) codes constructed by including a certain fraction of generalized constraint (GC) nodes in the graph. The rate of the GLDPC ensemble is bounded using classical results on linear block codes, namely Hamming bound and Varshamov bound. We also study the impact of the decoding method used at GC nodes. To incorporate both bounded-distance (BD) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) decoding at GC nodes into our analysis without resorting on multi-edge type of degree distributions (DDs), we propose the probabilistic peeling decoding (P-PD) algorithm, which models the decoding step at every GC node as an instance of a Bernoulli random variable with a successful decoding probability that depends on both the GC block code as well as its decoding algorithm. The P-PD asymptotic performance over the BEC can be efficiently predicted using standard techniques for LDPC codes such as density evolution (DE) or the differential equation method. Furthermore, for a class of GLDPC ensembles, we demonstrate that the simulated P-PD performance accurately predicts the actual performance of the GLPDC code under ML decoding at GC nodes. We illustrate our analysis for GLDPC code ensembles with regular and irregular DDs. In all cases, we show that a large fraction of GC nodes is required to reduce the original gap to capacity, but the optimal fraction is strictly smaller than one. We then consider techniques to further reduce the gap to capacity by means of random puncturing, and the inclusion of a certain fraction of generalized variable nodes in the graph., Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, August 2017

This paper concerns the maximum coding rate at which data can be transmitted over a noncoherent, single-antenna, Rayleigh block-fading channel using an error-correcting code of a given blocklength with a block-error probability not exceeding a given value. A high-SNR normal approximation of the maximum coding rate is presented that becomes accurate as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the number of coherence intervals $L$ over which we code tend to infinity. Numerical analyses suggest that the approximation is accurate at SNR values above 15dB and when the number of coherence intervals is 10 or more., Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. Replaced with the final author version that was submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory for publication. Changes were made to this version by the publisher prior to publication

We derive a lower bound on the smallest output entropy that can be achieved via vector quantization of a $d$-dimensional source with given expected $r$th-power distortion. Specialized to the one-dimensional case, and in the limit of vanishing distortion, this lower bound converges to the output entropy achieved by a uniform quantizer, thereby recovering the result by Gish and Pierce that uniform quantizers are asymptotically optimal as the allowed distortion tends to zero. Our lower bound holds for all $d$-dimensional memoryless sources having finite differential entropy and whose integer part has finite entropy. In contrast to Gish and Pierce, we do not require any additional constraints on the continuity or decay of the source probability density function. For one-dimensional sources, the derivation of the lower bound reveals a necessary condition for a sequence of quantizers to be asymptotically optimal as the allowed distortion tends to zero. This condition implies that any sequence of asymptotically-optimal almost-regular quantizers must converge to a uniform quantizer as the allowed distortion tends to zero., Comment: 26 pages, 1 figure. Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. Most important changes with respect to previous version: i) changed title (the old title was "Rate-distortion bounds for high-resolution vector quantization via Gibbs's inequality"); ii) added necessary conditions for a sequence of quantizers to be asymptotically optimal (Theorem 7 and Corollary 8)

We consider a noncoherent wireless network, where the transmitters and receivers are cognizant of the statistics of the fading coefficients, but are ignorant of their realizations. We demonstrate that if the nodes do not cooperate, if they transmit symbols that all follow the same distribution, and if the variances of the fading coefficients decay exponentially or more slowly, then the channel capacity is bounded in the SNR. This confirms a similar result by Lozano, Heath, and Andrews., Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures

The Shannon lower bound is one of the few lower bounds on the rate-distortion function that holds for a large class of sources. In this paper, it is demonstrated that its gap to the rate-distortion function vanishes as the allowed distortion tends to zero for all sources having a finite differential entropy and whose integer part is finite. Conversely, it is demonstrated that if the integer part of the source has an infinite entropy, then its rate-distortion function is infinite for every finite distortion. Consequently, the Shannon lower bound provides an asymptotically tight bound on the rate-distortion function if, and only if, the integer part of the source has a finite entropy., Comment: 13 pages, no figures. Replaced with version that has been submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. Lemma 1 has been generalized

Most of the recent advances in the design of high-speed wireless systems are based on information-theoretic principles that demonstrate how to efficiently transmit long data packets. However, the upcoming wireless systems, notably the 5G system, will need to support novel traffic types that use short packets. For example, short packets represent the most common form of traffic generated by sensors and other devices involved in Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications. Furthermore, there are emerging applications in which small packets are expected to carry critical information that should be received with low latency and ultra-high reliability. Current wireless systems are not designed to support short-packet transmissions. For example, the design of current systems relies on the assumption that the metadata (control information) is of negligible size compared to the actual information payload. Hence, transmitting metadata using heuristic methods does not affect the overall system performance. However, when the packets are short, metadata may be of the same size as the payload, and the conventional methods to transmit it may be highly suboptimal. In this article, we review recent advances in information theory, which provide the theoretical principles that govern the transmission of short packets. We then apply these principles to three exemplary scenarios (the two-way channel, the downlink broadcast channel, and the uplink random access channel), thereby illustrating how the transmission of control information can be optimized when the packets are short. The insights brought by these examples suggest that new principles are needed for the design of wireless protocols supporting short packets. These principles will have a direct impact on the system design., Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures; to appear in the Proceedings of the IEEE

Motivated by the current interest in ultra-reliable, low-latency, machine-type communication systems, we investigate the tradeoff between reliability, throughput, and latency in the transmission of information over multiple-antenna Rayleigh block-fading channels. Specifically, we obtain finite-blocklength, finite-SNR upper and lower bounds on the maximum coding rate achievable over such channels for a given constraint on the packet error probability. Numerical evidence suggests that our bounds delimit tightly the maximum coding rate already for short blocklengths (packets of about 100 symbols). Furthermore, our bounds reveal the existence of a tradeoff between the rate gain obtainable by spreading each codeword over all available time-frequency-spatial degrees of freedom, and the rate loss caused by the need of estimating the fading coefficients over these degrees of freedom. In particular, our bounds allow us to determine the optimal number of transmit antennas and the optimal number of time-frequency diversity branches that maximize the rate. Finally, we show that infinite-blocklength performance metrics such as the ergodic capacity and the outage capacity yield inaccurate throughput estimates., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures; to appear in IEEE Transactions on Communications; the numerical routines used for the simulation results are part of SPECTRE (short-packet communication toolbox) and can be downloaded at https://github.com/yp-mit/spectre

A finite blocklenth analysis of the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff is presented, based on nonasymptotic bounds on the maximum channel coding rate of multiple-antenna block-memoryless Rayleigh-fading channels.The bounds in this paper allow one to numerically assess for which packet size, number of antennas, and degree of channel selectivity, diversity-exploiting schemes are close to optimal, and when instead the available spatial degrees of freedom should be used to provide spatial multiplexing. This finite blocklength view on the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff provides insights on the design of delay-sensitive ultra-reliable communication links., Comment: Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Wirel. Comm. Syst. (ISWCS), Aug. 2014, to appear