Surface parameter retrieval using fast learning neural networks

EFFECTS OF NONSINGULAR PREPROCESSING ON FEEDFORWARD NETWORK TRAINING

In the neural network literature, many preprocessing techniques, such as feature de-correlation, input unbiasing and normalization, are suggested to accelerate multilayer perceptron training. In this paper, we show that a network trained with an original data set and one trained with a linear transformation of the original data will go through the same training dynamics, as long as they start from equivalent states. Thus preprocessing techniques may not be helpful and are merely equivalent to using a different weight set to initialize the network. Theoretical analyses of such preprocessing approaches are given for conjugate gradient, back propagation and the Newton method. In addition, an efficient Newton-like training algorithm is proposed for hidden layer training. Experiments on various data sets confirm the theoretical analyses and verify the improvement of the new algorithm.

Feature selection using a piecewise linear network

We present an efficient feature selection algorithm for the general regression problem, which utilizes a piecewise linear orthonormal least squares (OLS) procedure. The algorithm 1) determines an appropriate piecewise linear network (PLN) model for the given data set, 2) applies the OLS procedure to the PLN model, and 3) searches for useful feature subsets using a floating search algorithm. The floating search prevents the "nesting effect." The proposed algorithm is computationally very efficient because only one data pass is required. Several examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.