Analyzing sparse dictionaries for online learning with kernels

Many signal processing and machine learning methods share essentially the same linear-in-the-parameter model, with as many parameters as available samples as in kernel-based machines. Sparse approximation is essential in many disciplines, with new challenges emerging in online learning with kernels. To this end, several sparsity measures have been proposed in the literature to quantify sparse dictionaries and constructing relevant ones, the most prolific ones being the distance, the approximation, the coherence and the Babel measures. In this paper, we analyze sparse dictionaries based on these measures. By conducting an eigenvalue analysis, we show that these sparsity measures share many properties, including the linear independence condition and inducing a well-posed optimization problem. Furthermore, we prove that there exists a quasi-isometry between the parameter (i.e., dual) space and the dictionary's induced feature space.Comment: 10 page

Improving Sparsity in Kernel Adaptive Filters Using a Unit-Norm Dictionary

Kernel adaptive filters, a class of adaptive nonlinear time-series models, are known by their ability to learn expressive autoregressive patterns from sequential data. However, for trivial monotonic signals, they struggle to perform accurate predictions and at the same time keep computational complexity within desired boundaries. This is because new observations are incorporated to the dictionary when they are far from what the algorithm has seen in the past. We propose a novel approach to kernel adaptive filtering that compares new observations against dictionary samples in terms of their unit-norm (normalised) versions, meaning that new observations that look like previous samples but have a different magnitude are not added to the dictionary. We achieve this by proposing the unit-norm Gaussian kernel and define a sparsification criterion for this novel kernel. This new methodology is validated on two real-world datasets against standard KAF in terms of the normalised mean square error and the dictionary size.Comment: Accepted at the IEEE Digital Signal Processing conference 201

Entropy of Overcomplete Kernel Dictionaries

In signal analysis and synthesis, linear approximation theory considers a linear decomposition of any given signal in a set of atoms, collected into a so-called dictionary. Relevant sparse representations are obtained by relaxing the orthogonality condition of the atoms, yielding overcomplete dictionaries with an extended number of atoms. More generally than the linear decomposition, overcomplete kernel dictionaries provide an elegant nonlinear extension by defining the atoms through a mapping kernel function (e.g., the gaussian kernel). Models based on such kernel dictionaries are used in neural networks, gaussian processes and online learning with kernels. The quality of an overcomplete dictionary is evaluated with a diversity measure the distance, the approximation, the coherence and the Babel measures. In this paper, we develop a framework to examine overcomplete kernel dictionaries with the entropy from information theory. Indeed, a higher value of the entropy is associated to a further uniform spread of the atoms over the space. For each of the aforementioned diversity measures, we derive lower bounds on the entropy. Several definitions of the entropy are examined, with an extensive analysis in both the input space and the mapped feature space.Comment: 10 page

Approximation errors of online sparsification criteria

Many machine learning frameworks, such as resource-allocating networks, kernel-based methods, Gaussian processes, and radial-basis-function networks, require a sparsification scheme in order to address the online learning paradigm. For this purpose, several online sparsification criteria have been proposed to restrict the model definition on a subset of samples. The most known criterion is the (linear) approximation criterion, which discards any sample that can be well represented by the already contributing samples, an operation with excessive computational complexity. Several computationally efficient sparsification criteria have been introduced in the literature, such as the distance, the coherence and the Babel criteria. In this paper, we provide a framework that connects these sparsification criteria to the issue of approximating samples, by deriving theoretical bounds on the approximation errors. Moreover, we investigate the error of approximating any feature, by proposing upper-bounds on the approximation error for each of the aforementioned sparsification criteria. Two classes of features are described in detail, the empirical mean and the principal axes in the kernel principal component analysis.Comment: 10 page

A kernel-based embedding framework for high-dimensional data analysis

The world is essentially multidimensional, e.g., neurons, computer networks, Internet traffic, and financial markets. The challenge is to discover and extract information that lies hidden in these high-dimensional datasets to support classification, regression, clustering, and visualization tasks. As a result, dimensionality reduction aims to provide a faithful representation of data in a low-dimensional space. This removes noise and redundant features, which is useful to understand and visualize the structure of complex datasets. The focus of this work is the analysis of high-dimensional data to support regression tasks and exploratory data analysis in real-world scenarios. Firstly, we propose an online framework to predict longterm future behavior of time-series. Secondly, we propose a new dimensionality reduction method to preserve the significant structure of high-dimensional data in a low-dimensional space. Lastly, we propose an sparsification strategy based on dimensionality reduction to avoid overfitting and reduce computational complexity in online applicationsEl mundo es esencialmente multidimensional, por ejemplo, neuronas, redes computacionales, tráfico de internet y los mercados financieros. El desafío es descubrir y extraer información que permanece oculta en estos conjuntos de datos de alta dimensión para apoyar tareas de clasificación, regresión, agrupamiento y visualización. Como resultado de ello, los métodos de reducción de dimensión pretenden suministrar una fiel representación de los datos en un espacio de baja dimensión. Esto permite eliminar ruido y características redundantes, lo que es útil para entender y visualizar la estructura de conjuntos de datos complejos. Este trabajo se enfoca en el análisis de datos de alta dimensión para apoyar tareas de regresión y el análisis exploratorio de datos en escenarios del mundo real. En primer lugar, proponemos un marco para la predicción del comportamiento a largo plazo de series de tiempo. En segundo lugar, se propone un nuevo método de reducción de dimensión para preservar la estructura significativa de datos de alta dimensión en un espacio de baja dimensión. Finalmente, proponemos una estrategia de esparsificacion que utiliza reducción de dimensional dad para evitar sobre ajuste y reducir la complejidad computacional de aplicaciones en líneaDoctorad