Representation of Functional Data in Neural Networks

Functional Data Analysis (FDA) is an extension of traditional data analysis to functional data, for example spectra, temporal series, spatio-temporal images, gesture recognition data, etc. Functional data are rarely known in practice; usually a regular or irregular sampling is known. For this reason, some processing is needed in order to benefit from the smooth character of functional data in the analysis methods. This paper shows how to extend the Radial-Basis Function Networks (RBFN) and Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) models to functional data inputs, in particular when the latter are known through lists of input-output pairs. Various possibilities for functional processing are discussed, including the projection on smooth bases, Functional Principal Component Analysis, functional centering and reduction, and the use of differential operators. It is shown how to incorporate these functional processing into the RBFN and MLP models. The functional approach is illustrated on a benchmark of spectrometric data analysis.Comment: Also available online from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0925231

A neural network approach to audio-assisted movie dialogue detection

A novel framework for audio-assisted dialogue detection based on indicator functions and neural networks is investigated. An indicator function defines that an actor is present at a particular time instant. The cross-correlation function of a pair of indicator functions and the magnitude of the corresponding cross-power spectral density are fed as input to neural networks for dialogue detection. Several types of artificial neural networks, including multilayer perceptrons, voted perceptrons, radial basis function networks, support vector machines, and particle swarm optimization-based multilayer perceptrons are tested. Experiments are carried out to validate the feasibility of the aforementioned approach by using ground-truth indicator functions determined by human observers on 6 different movies. A total of 41 dialogue instances and another 20 non-dialogue instances is employed. The average detection accuracy achieved is high, ranging between 84.78%±5.499% and 91.43%±4.239%

Neural networks in geophysical applications

Neural networks are increasingly popular in geophysics. Because they are universal approximators, these tools can approximate any continuous function with an arbitrary precision. Hence, they may yield important contributions to finding solutions to a variety of geophysical applications. However, knowledge of many methods and techniques recently developed to increase the performance and to facilitate the use of neural networks does not seem to be widespread in the geophysical community. Therefore, the power of these tools has not yet been explored to their full extent. In this paper, techniques are described for faster training, better overall performance, i.e., generalization,and the automatic estimation of network size and architecture

Training Methods for Shunting Inhibitory Artificial Neural Networks

This project investigates a new class of high-order neural networks called shunting inhibitory artificial neural networks (SIANN\u27s) and their training methods. SIANN\u27s are biologically inspired neural networks whose dynamics are governed by a set of coupled nonlinear differential equations. The interactions among neurons are mediated via a nonlinear mechanism called shunting inhibition, which allows the neurons to operate as adaptive nonlinear filters. The project\u27s main objective is to devise training methods, based on error backpropagation type of algorithms, which would allow SIANNs to be trained to perform feature extraction for classification and nonlinear regression tasks. The training algorithms developed will simplify the task of designing complex, powerful neural networks for applications in pattern recognition, image processing, signal processing, machine vision and control. The five training methods adapted in this project for SIANN\u27s are error-backpropagation based on gradient descent (GD), gradient descent with variable learning rate (GDV), gradient descent with momentum (GDM), gradient descent with direct solution step (GDD) and APOLEX algorithm. SIANN\u27s and these training methods are implemented in MATLAB. Testing on several benchmarks including the parity problems, classification of 2-D patterns, and function approximation shows that SIANN\u27s trained using these methods yield comparable or better performance with multilayer perceptrons (MLP\u27s)

Modeling Financial Time Series with Artificial Neural Networks

Financial time series convey the decisions and actions of a population of human actors over time. Econometric and regressive models have been developed in the past decades for analyzing these time series. More recently, biologically inspired artificial neural network models have been shown to overcome some of the main challenges of traditional techniques by better exploiting the non-linear, non-stationary, and oscillatory nature of noisy, chaotic human interactions. This review paper explores the options, benefits, and weaknesses of the various forms of artificial neural networks as compared with regression techniques in the field of financial time series analysis.CELEST, a National Science Foundation Science of Learning Center (SBE-0354378); SyNAPSE program of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (HR001109-03-0001