The VEX-93 environment as a hybrid tool for developing knowledge systems with different problem solving techniques

The paper describes VEX-93 as a hybrid environment for developing knowledge-based and problem solver systems. It integrates methods and techniques from artificial intelligence, image and signal processing and data analysis, which can be mixed. Two hierarchical levels of reasoning contains an intelligent toolbox with one upper strategic inference engine and four lower ones containing specific reasoning models: truth-functional (rule-based), probabilistic (causal networks), fuzzy (rule-based) and case-based (frames). There are image/signal processing-analysis capabilities in the form of programming languages with more than one hundred primitive functions. User-made programs are embeddable within knowledge basis, allowing the combination of perception and reasoning. The data analyzer toolbox contains a collection of numerical classification, pattern recognition and ordination methods, with neural network tools and a data base query language at inference engines's disposal. VEX-93 is an open system able to communicate with external computer programs relevant to a particular application. Metaknowledge can be used for elaborate conclusions, and man-machine interaction includes, besides windows and graphical interfaces, acceptance of voice commands and production of speech output. The system was conceived for real-world applications in general domains, but an example of a concrete medical diagnostic support system at present under completion as a cuban-spanish project is mentioned. Present version of VEX-93 is a huge system composed by about one and half millions of lines of C code and runs in microcomputers under Windows 3.1.Postprint (published version

ART Neural Networks: Distributed Coding and ARTMAP Applications

ART (Adaptive Resonance Theory) neural networks for fast, stable learning and prediction have been applied in a variety of areas. Applications include airplane design and manufacturing, automatic target recognition, financial forecasting, machine tool monitoring, digital circuit design, chemical analysis, and robot vision. Supervised ART architectures, called ARTMAP systems, feature internal control mechanisms that create stable recognition categories of optimal size by maximizing code compression while minimizing predictive error in an on-line setting. Special-purpose requirements of various application domains have led to a number of ARTMAP variants, including fuzzy ARTMAP, ART-EMAP, Gaussian ARTMAP, and distributed ARTMAP. ARTMAP has been used for a variety of applications, including computer-assisted medical diagnosis. Medical databases present many of the challenges found in general information management settings where speed, efficiency, ease of use, and accuracy are at a premium. A direct goal of improved computer-assisted medicine is to help deliver quality emergency care in situations that may be less than ideal. Working with these problems has stimulated a number of ART architecture developments, including ARTMAP-IC [1]. This paper describes a recent collaborative effort, using a new cardiac care database for system development, has brought together medical statisticians and clinicians at the New England Medical Center with researchers developing expert systems and neural networks, in order to create a hybrid method for medical diagnosis. The paper also considers new neural network architectures, including distributed ART {dART), a real-time model of parallel distributed pattern learning that permits fast as well as slow adaptation, without catastrophic forgetting. Local synaptic computations in the dART model quantitatively match the paradoxical phenomenon of Markram-Tsodyks [2] redistribution of synaptic efficacy, as a consequence of global system hypotheses.Office of Naval Research (N00014-95-1-0409, N00014-95-1-0657

Gray Image extraction using Fuzzy Logic

Fuzzy systems concern fundamental methodology to represent and process uncertainty and imprecision in the linguistic information. The fuzzy systems that use fuzzy rules to represent the domain knowledge of the problem are known as Fuzzy Rule Base Systems (FRBS). On the other hand image segmentation and subsequent extraction from a noise-affected background, with the help of various soft computing methods, are relatively new and quite popular due to various reasons. These methods include various Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models (primarily supervised in nature), Genetic Algorithm (GA) based techniques, intensity histogram based methods etc. providing an extraction solution working in unsupervised mode happens to be even more interesting problem. Literature suggests that effort in this respect appears to be quite rudimentary. In the present article, we propose a fuzzy rule guided novel technique that is functional devoid of any external intervention during execution. Experimental results suggest that this approach is an efficient one in comparison to different other techniques extensively addressed in literature. In order to justify the supremacy of performance of our proposed technique in respect of its competitors, we take recourse to effective metrics like Mean Squared Error (MSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR).Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, Fuzzy Rule Base, Image Extraction, Fuzzy Inference System (FIS), Membership Functions, Membership values,Image coding and Processing, Soft Computing, Computer Vision Accepted and published in IEEE. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1206.363

Medical imaging analysis with artificial neural networks

Given that neural networks have been widely reported in the research community of medical imaging, we provide a focused literature survey on recent neural network developments in computer-aided diagnosis, medical image segmentation and edge detection towards visual content analysis, and medical image registration for its pre-processing and post-processing, with the aims of increasing awareness of how neural networks can be applied to these areas and to provide a foundation for further research and practical development. Representative techniques and algorithms are explained in detail to provide inspiring examples illustrating: (i) how a known neural network with fixed structure and training procedure could be applied to resolve a medical imaging problem; (ii) how medical images could be analysed, processed, and characterised by neural networks; and (iii) how neural networks could be expanded further to resolve problems relevant to medical imaging. In the concluding section, a highlight of comparisons among many neural network applications is included to provide a global view on computational intelligence with neural networks in medical imaging

Measurements, Models, Systems and Design

531 s.