3,036 research outputs found
Multiple Resolution Nonparametric Classifiers
Bayesian discriminant functions provide optimal classification decision boundaries in the sense of minimizing the average error rate. An operational assumption is that the probability density functions for the individual classes are either known a priori or can be estimated from the data through the use of estimating techniques. The use of Parzen- windows is a popular and theoretically sound choice for such estimation. However, while the minimal average error rate can be achieved when combining Bayes Rule with Parzen-window density estimation, the latter is computationally costly to the point where it may lead to unacceptable run-time performance. We present the Multiple Resolution Nonparametric (MRN) classifier as a new approach for significantly reducing the computational cost of using Parzen-window density estimates without sacrificing the virtues of Bayesian discriminant functions. Performance is evaluated against a standard Parzen-window classifier on several common datasets
Meta learning of bounds on the Bayes classifier error
Meta learning uses information from base learners (e.g. classifiers or
estimators) as well as information about the learning problem to improve upon
the performance of a single base learner. For example, the Bayes error rate of
a given feature space, if known, can be used to aid in choosing a classifier,
as well as in feature selection and model selection for the base classifiers
and the meta classifier. Recent work in the field of f-divergence functional
estimation has led to the development of simple and rapidly converging
estimators that can be used to estimate various bounds on the Bayes error. We
estimate multiple bounds on the Bayes error using an estimator that applies
meta learning to slowly converging plug-in estimators to obtain the parametric
convergence rate. We compare the estimated bounds empirically on simulated data
and then estimate the tighter bounds on features extracted from an image patch
analysis of sunspot continuum and magnetogram images.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in proceedings of 2015 IEEE Signal
Processing and SP Education Worksho
Adaptive Nonparametric Image Parsing
In this paper, we present an adaptive nonparametric solution to the image
parsing task, namely annotating each image pixel with its corresponding
category label. For a given test image, first, a locality-aware retrieval set
is extracted from the training data based on super-pixel matching similarities,
which are augmented with feature extraction for better differentiation of local
super-pixels. Then, the category of each super-pixel is initialized by the
majority vote of the -nearest-neighbor super-pixels in the retrieval set.
Instead of fixing as in traditional non-parametric approaches, here we
propose a novel adaptive nonparametric approach which determines the
sample-specific k for each test image. In particular, is adaptively set to
be the number of the fewest nearest super-pixels which the images in the
retrieval set can use to get the best category prediction. Finally, the initial
super-pixel labels are further refined by contextual smoothing. Extensive
experiments on challenging datasets demonstrate the superiority of the new
solution over other state-of-the-art nonparametric solutions.Comment: 11 page
The ABACOC Algorithm: a Novel Approach for Nonparametric Classification of Data Streams
Stream mining poses unique challenges to machine learning: predictive models
are required to be scalable, incrementally trainable, must remain bounded in
size (even when the data stream is arbitrarily long), and be nonparametric in
order to achieve high accuracy even in complex and dynamic environments.
Moreover, the learning system must be parameterless ---traditional tuning
methods are problematic in streaming settings--- and avoid requiring prior
knowledge of the number of distinct class labels occurring in the stream. In
this paper, we introduce a new algorithmic approach for nonparametric learning
in data streams. Our approach addresses all above mentioned challenges by
learning a model that covers the input space using simple local classifiers.
The distribution of these classifiers dynamically adapts to the local (unknown)
complexity of the classification problem, thus achieving a good balance between
model complexity and predictive accuracy. We design four variants of our
approach of increasing adaptivity. By means of an extensive empirical
evaluation against standard nonparametric baselines, we show state-of-the-art
results in terms of accuracy versus model size. For the variant that imposes a
strict bound on the model size, we show better performance against all other
methods measured at the same model size value. Our empirical analysis is
complemented by a theoretical performance guarantee which does not rely on any
stochastic assumption on the source generating the stream
Efficient learning of neighbor representations for boundary trees and forests
We introduce a semiparametric approach to neighbor-based classification. We
build off the recently proposed Boundary Trees algorithm by Mathy et al.(2015)
which enables fast neighbor-based classification, regression and retrieval in
large datasets. While boundary trees use an Euclidean measure of similarity,
the Differentiable Boundary Tree algorithm by Zoran et al.(2017) was introduced
to learn low-dimensional representations of complex input data, on which
semantic similarity can be calculated to train boundary trees. As is pointed
out by its authors, the differentiable boundary tree approach contains a few
limitations that prevents it from scaling to large datasets. In this paper, we
introduce Differentiable Boundary Sets, an algorithm that overcomes the
computational issues of the differentiable boundary tree scheme and also
improves its classification accuracy and data representability. Our algorithm
is efficiently implementable with existing tools and offers a significant
reduction in training time. We test and compare the algorithms on the well
known MNIST handwritten digits dataset and the newer Fashion-MNIST dataset by
Xiao et al.(2017).Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure
Active Nearest-Neighbor Learning in Metric Spaces
We propose a pool-based non-parametric active learning algorithm for general
metric spaces, called MArgin Regularized Metric Active Nearest Neighbor
(MARMANN), which outputs a nearest-neighbor classifier. We give prediction
error guarantees that depend on the noisy-margin properties of the input
sample, and are competitive with those obtained by previously proposed passive
learners. We prove that the label complexity of MARMANN is significantly lower
than that of any passive learner with similar error guarantees. MARMANN is
based on a generalized sample compression scheme, and a new label-efficient
active model-selection procedure
Stabilized Nearest Neighbor Classifier and Its Statistical Properties
The stability of statistical analysis is an important indicator for
reproducibility, which is one main principle of scientific method. It entails
that similar statistical conclusions can be reached based on independent
samples from the same underlying population. In this paper, we introduce a
general measure of classification instability (CIS) to quantify the sampling
variability of the prediction made by a classification method. Interestingly,
the asymptotic CIS of any weighted nearest neighbor classifier turns out to be
proportional to the Euclidean norm of its weight vector. Based on this concise
form, we propose a stabilized nearest neighbor (SNN) classifier, which
distinguishes itself from other nearest neighbor classifiers, by taking the
stability into consideration. In theory, we prove that SNN attains the minimax
optimal convergence rate in risk, and a sharp convergence rate in CIS. The
latter rate result is established for general plug-in classifiers under a
low-noise condition. Extensive simulated and real examples demonstrate that SNN
achieves a considerable improvement in CIS over existing nearest neighbor
classifiers, with comparable classification accuracy. We implement the
algorithm in a publicly available R package snn.Comment: 48 Pages, 11 Figures. To Appear in JASA--T&
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