In Intent-based Vehicular Edge Computing (VEC) networking, escalating demands for computational offloading and resource management in dynamic urban environments necessitate innovative solutions. This paper proposes a novel RIS-assisted NOMA-VEC framework that empowers vehicle users (VUs) to offload arbitrary task portions to multiple edge servers via any available subcarrier. This approach overcomes limitations posed by heterogeneous local computing capabilities and stringent latency constraints. By leveraging Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) to enhance channel conditions through both direct and reflected links, our framework significantly improves communication reliability and offloading efficiency. To minimize the average weighted energy consumption of VUs under time-varying channels and traffic dynamics, we formulate a joint optimization problem integrating offloading decisions, power allocation, and transmission time scheduling. Addressing the problem’s inherent complexity, characterized by multi-variable coupling and non-convex constraints, we develop a two-stage decomposition strategy: Offloading decisions are dynamically adapted to environmental fluctuations using a Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO)-based algorithm, while resource allocation is resolved through a hybrid Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Sequential Least Squares Programming(SLSQP) approach, efficiently navigating combinatorial and non-convex landscapes. Extensive simulations demonstrate that our framework reduces VU energy consumption by 11.12% compared to baseline methods, validating its superior efficiency in RIS-enhanced VEC systems.

Existing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) clusters lack a formalized model, fail to consider external interference factors, and overlook the need for dynamic cluster maintenance to ensure stability and coordination in open scenarios. To address these issues, we propose an UAV collaborative cluster formation method suitable for open scenarios, which can form an energy-efficient, reliable, and stable UAV cluster even in external interferences. First, we present a UAV node promotion method based on mobility similarity and connectivity. Then, we formalize a collaborative UAV cluster model based on the energy efficiency, reliability, and stability among UAV nodes. Next, we propose a formation method for UAV clusters based on Pareto optimality and provide a maintenance method for clusters. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly outperforms state-of-the-art (SOTA) approaches. Specifically, in open scenarios, our method improves average cluster efficiency by up to 6.9%, enhances average cluster reliability by 12.4%, enhances average cluster stability by 14.2%, and extends the average cluster survival time and the average node survival time by 18.1% and 17.2% compared to the best-performing baseline, verifying the superior effectiveness and robustness of the proposed framework.

Deploying autonomous aerial vehicles (AAVs) as aerial base stations enhances the coverage and performance of communication networks in vehicular edge computing scenarios. However, due to the limited communication range and energy capacity of AAVs, they cannot continuously cover entire areas or sustain long flights. Therefore, achieving full communication coverage of a target area with a minimal number of AAVs and efficient task offloading remains a significant challenge. To address this problem, the AAV-assisted two-stage intelligent collaboration (UTIC) method is proposed in this article to tackle the joint position optimization and task scheduling issue. First, a AAV-assisted two-stage task scheduling system model is designed to optimize the allocation process. Second, an Enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm is designed to determine the optimal positions of AAVs, ensuring complete coverage of all mobile vehicles (MVs) with the minimum number of AAVs. Third, deep deterministic policy gradient method is employed to find the optimal scheduling decisions for MVs, considering energy consumption, delay, and task priorities. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed UTIC method can achieve nearly 20% reduction in AAV deployment and outperform three other classical reinforcement learning algorithms in terms of reducing system cost.

Text generation is an essential research area in artificial intelligence (AI) technology and natural language processing and provides key technical support for the rapid development of AI-generated content (AIGC). It is based on technologies such as natural language processing, machine learning, and deep learning, which enable learning language rules through training models to automatically generate text that meets grammatical and semantic requirements. In this paper, we sort and systematically summarize the main research progress in text generation and review recent text generation papers, focusing on presenting a detailed understanding of the technical models. In addition, several typical text generation application systems are presented. Finally, we address some challenges and future directions in AI text generation. We conclude that improving the quality, quantity, interactivity, and adaptability of generated text can help fundamentally advance AI text generation development.

We usually use a digraph to represent a wireless network (WN). Correspondingly, a connected dominating set (CDS) of the digraph is usually used to denote a virtual backbone (VB) of the corresponding WN. In this article, focusing on the problem of a minimum strongly connected dominating and absorbing set (MSCDAS) with a bounded diameter (or guaranteed routing cost) for a digraph, which is strongly connected, we introduce two algorithms. One is called the guaranteed routing cost strongly connected dominating and absorbing set (GOC-SCDAS), which can generate a strongly connected dominating and absorbing set (SCDAS) with a performance ratio 14.4k+1/22 in respect of the optimal solution. Another is called the α guaranteed routing cost strongly connected bidirectional dominating and absorbing set ( α -GOC-SCBDAS), which can generate a strongly connected bidirectional dominating and absorbing set (SCBDAS) with a performance ratio 8.8443k+1/22k+1/22 in respect of the optimal solution and a better routing cost, where k=rmax/rmin and rmin,rmax is the transmission range of nodes in the network. Through the simulation experiments, we obtain the conclusion that in terms of the diameter and average routing path length (ARPL) of CDS, the outputs of our algorithms are better than those of the algorithm in (Du et al. 2006).

Face de-identification, the process of preventing a person' identity from being connected with personal information, is an important privacy protection tool in multimedia data processing. With the advance of face detection algorithms, a natural solution is to blur or block facial regions in visual data so as to obscure identity information. Such solutions however often destroy privacy-insensitive information and hence limit the data utility, e.g., gender and age information. In this paper we address the de-identification problem by proposing a simple yet effective framework, named GARP-Face, that balances utility preservation in face deidentification. In particular, we use modern facial analysis technologies to determine the Gender, Age, and Race attributes of facial images, and Preserving these attributes by seeking corresponding representatives constructed through a gallery dataset. We evaluate the proposed approach using the MORPH dataset in comparison with several state-of-the-art face de-identification solutions. The results show that our method outperforms previous solutions in preserving data utility while achieving similar degree of privacy protection.

Indoor environment is a common scene in our everyday life, and detecting and tracking multiple targets in this environment is a key component for many applications. However, this task still remains challenging due to limited space, intrinsic target appearance variation, e.g. full or partial occlusion, large pose deformation, and scale change. In the proposed approach, we give a novel framework for detection and tracking in indoor environments, and extend it to robot navigation. One of the key components of our approach is a virtual top view created from an RGB-D camera, which is named ground plane projection (GPP). The key advantage of using GPP is the fact that the intrinsic target appearance variation and extrinsic noise is far less likely to appear in GPP than in a regular side-view image. Moreover, it is a very simple task to determine free space in GPP without any appearance learning even from a moving camera. Hence GPP is very different from the top-view image obtained from a ceiling mounted camera. We perform both object detection and tracking in GPP. Two kinds of GPP images are utilized: gray GPP, which represents the maximal height of 3D points projecting to each pixel, and binary GPP, which is obtained by thresholding the gray GPP. For detection, a simple connected component labeling is used to detect footprints of targets in binary GPP. For tracking, a novel Pixel Level Association (PLA) strategy is proposed to link the same target in consecutive frames in gray GPP. It utilizes optical flow in gray GPP, which to our best knowledge has never been done before. Then we "back project" the detected and tracked objects in GPP to original, side-view (RGB) images. Hence we are able to detect and track objects in the side-view (RGB) images. Our system is able to robustly detect and track multiple moving targets in real time. The detection process does not rely on any target model, which means we do not need any training process. Moreover, tracking does not require any manual initialization, since all entering objects are robustly detected. We also extend the novel framework to robot navigation by tracking. As our experimental results demonstrate, our approach can achieve near prefect detection and tracking results. The performance gain in comparison to state-of-the-art trackers is most significant in the presence of occlusion and background clutter.

In many registration problems of an aerial video images, computational complexity and precision is of critical importance. In this paper an new aerial video images registration algorithm based on optimal derivative filters with Scene-Adaptive Corners is proposed. Firstly, the Harris detector based on optimal derivative filters is presented and scene-adaptation is used to control the number of feature points, Then through comparing the euclidean distance of the SURF(speed up robust feature) descriptors defined on the corner neighborhoods, the corresponding matches are established. Lastly, the transformation parameters are estimated using the invariant of five coplanar points, then the most "useful" matching points are used to register the frames. Experiment results illustrate that the proposed algorithm carries out accurate image registration and is robust to large image translation, scaling and rotation.

We systematically study the design of image recognition CAPTCHAs (IRCs) in this paper. We first review and examine all existing IRCs schemes and evaluate each scheme against the practical requirements in CAPTCHA applications, particularly in large-scale real-life applications such as Gmail and Hotmail. Then we present a security analysis of the representative schemes we have identified. For the schemes that remain unbroken, we present our novel attacks. For the schemes for which known attacks are available, we propose a theoretical explanation why those schemes have failed. Next, we provide a simple but novel framework for guiding the design of robust IRCs. Then we propose an innovative IRC called Cortcha that is scalable to meet the requirements of large-scale applications. It relies on recognizing objects by exploiting the surrounding context, a task that humans can perform well but computers cannot. An infinite number of types of objects can be used to generate challenges, which can effectively disable the learning process in machine learning attacks. Cortcha does not require the images in its image database to be labeled. Image collection and CAPTCHA generation can be fully automated. Our usability studies indicate that, compared with Google's text CAPTCHA, Cortcha allows a slightly higher human accuracy rate but on average takes more time to solve a challenge.