Clustering validity based on the improved S_Dbw* index

For many clustering algorithms, it is very important to determine an appropriate number of clusters, which is called cluster validity problem. In this paper, a new clustering validity assessment index is proposed based on a novel method to select the margin point between two clusters for inter-cluster similarity more accurately, and provides an improved scatter function for intra-cluster similarity. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed index on the data sets under consideration regardless of the choice of a clustering algorithm.