Classification and Feature Selection by a Self-Organizing Neural Network

摘要

This article describes recent improvements of an original neural network building method which could be applied in the particular case of 2 input neurones. After a brief recall of the main building principles of a neural net, authors introduce the capability for a neurone to receive more than 2 inputs. Two problems then arise : how to chose the input number of a neurone, and what becomes of the decision rule of a neurone? Treating these problems leads to an original feature selection method (based on genetic algorithms) and leads to adapt a linear discrimination algorithm to non separable problems. Experimental results for a handwritten digit recognition problem confirm the efficiency of the method.