Combining parametric and non-parametric algorithms for a partially unsupervised classification of multitemporal remote-sensing images

In this paper, we propose a classification system based on a multiple-classifier architecture, which is aimed at updating land-cover maps by using multisensor and/or multisource remote-sensing images. The proposed system is composed of an ensemble of classifiers that, once trained in a supervised way on a specific image of a given area, can be retrained in an unsupervised way to classify a new image of the considered site. In this context, two techniques are presented for the unsupervised updating of the parameters of a maximum-likelihood classifier and a radial basis function neural-network classifier, on the basis of the distribution of the new image to be classified. Experimental results carried out on a multitemporal and multisource remote-sensing data set confirm the effectiveness of the proposed system.     

A self-trained ensemble with semisupervised SVM: An application to pixel classification of remote sensing imagery

In this article, we present a semisupervised support vector machine that uses self-training approach. We then construct an ensemble of semisupervised SVM classifiers to address the problem of pixel classification of remote sensing images. Semisupervised support vector machines (S³VMs) are based on applying the margin maximization principle to both labeled and unlabeled samples. The ensemble of SVM classifiers recognizes the conceptual similarity between component classifiers from the same data source. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is first demonstrated for two numeric remote sensing data described in terms of feature vectors and then identifying different land cover regions in remote sensing imagery. Experimental results on these datasets show that employing this learning scheme can increase the accuracy level. The performance of the ensemble is compared with one of its component classifier and conventional SVM in terms of accuracy and quantitative cluster validity indices.     

Improvements in image categorization using codebook ensembles

The problem of object category classification by committees or ensembles of classifiers, each of which is based on one diverse codebook, is addressed in this paper. Two methods of constructing visual codebook ensembles are proposed in this study. The first technique introduces diverse individual visual codebooks using different clustering algorithms. The second uses various visual codebooks of different sizes for constructing an ensemble with high diversity. Codebook ensembles are trained to capture and convey image properties from different aspects. Based on these codebook ensembles, different types of image representations can be acquired. A classifier ensemble can be trained based on different expression datasets from the same training image set. The use of a classifier ensemble to categorize new images can lead to improved performance. Detailed experimental analysis on a Pascal VOC challenge dataset reveals that the present ensemble approach performs well, consistently improves the performance of visual object classifiers, and results in state-of-the-art performance in categorization.     

Combining feature selection and classifier ensemble using a multiobjective simulated annealing approach: application to named entity recognition

In this paper, we propose a two-stage multiobjective-simulated annealing (MOSA)-based technique for named entity recognition (NER). At first, MOSA is used for feature selection under two statistical classifiers, viz. conditional random field (CRF) and support vector machine (SVM). Each solution on the final Pareto optimal front provides a different classifier. These classifiers are then combined together by using a new classifier ensemble technique based on MOSA. Several different versions of the objective functions are exploited. We hypothesize that the reliability of prediction of each classifier differs among the various output classes. Thus, in an ensemble system, it is necessary to find out the appropriate weight of vote for each output class in each classifier. We propose a MOSA-based technique to determine the weights for votes automatically. The proposed two-stage technique is evaluated for NER in Bengali, a resource-poor language, as well as for English. Evaluation results yield the highest recall, precision and F-measure values of 93.95, 95.15 and 94.55 %, respectively for Bengali and 89.01, 89.35 and 89.18 %, respectively for English. Experiments also suggest that the classifier ensemble identified by the proposed MOO-based approach optimizing the F-measure values of named entity (NE) boundary detection outperforms all the individual classifiers and four conventional baseline models.     

Aggregation of classifiers ensemble using local discriminatory power and quantiles

The paper presents a new approach to the dynamic classifier selection in an ensemble by applying the best suited classifier for the particular testing sample. It is based on the area under curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) of each classifier. To allow application of different types of classifiers in an ensemble and to reduce the influence of outliers, the quantile representation of the signals is used. The quantiles divide the ordered data into essentially equal-sized data subsets providing approximately uniform distribution of [0–1] support for each data point. In this way the recognition problem is less sensitive to the outliers, scales and noise contained in the input attributes. The numerical results presented for the chosen benchmark data-mining sets and for the data-set of images representing melanoma and non-melanoma skin lesions have shown high efficiency of the proposed approach and superiority to the existing methods.     

A new hybrid ensemble credit scoring model based on classifiers consensus system approach

During the last few years there has been marked attention towards hybrid and ensemble systems development, having proved their ability to be more accurate than single classifier models. However, among the hybrid and ensemble models developed in the literature there has been little consideration given to: 1) combining data filtering and feature selection methods 2) combining classifiers of different algorithms; and 3) exploring different classifier output combination techniques other than the traditional ones found in the literature. In this paper, the aim is to improve predictive performance by presenting a new hybrid ensemble credit scoring model through the combination of two data pre-processing methods based on Gabriel Neighbourhood Graph editing (GNG) and Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) in the hybrid modelling phase. In addition, a new classifier combination rule based on the consensus approach (ConsA) of different classification algorithms during the ensemble modelling phase is proposed. Several comparisons will be carried out in this paper, as follows: 1) Comparison of individual base classifiers with the GNG and MARS methods applied separately and combined in order to choose the best results for the ensemble modelling phase; 2) Comparison of the proposed approach with all the base classifiers and ensemble classifiers with the traditional combination methods; and 3) Comparison of the proposed approach with recent related studies in the literature. Five of the well-known base classifiers are used, namely, neural networks (NN), support vector machines (SVM), random forests (RF), decision trees (DT), and naïve Bayes (NB). The experimental results, analysis and statistical tests prove the ability of the proposed approach to improve prediction performance against all the base classifiers, hybrid and the traditional combination methods in terms of average accuracy, the area under the curve (AUC) H-measure and the Brier Score. The model was validated over seven real world credit datasets.     

A hybrid classifier committee for analysing asymmetry features in breast thermograms

Breast cancer is the most commonly occurring form of cancer in women. While mammography is the standard modality for diagnosis, thermal imaging provides an interesting alternative as it can identify tumors of smaller size and hence lead to earlier detection. In this paper, we present an approach to analysing breast thermograms based on image features and a hybrid multiple classifier system. The employed image features provide indications of asymmetry between left and right breast regions that are encountered when a tumor is locally recruiting blood vessels on one side, leading to a change in the captured temperature distribution. The presented multiple classifier system is based on a hybridisation of three computational intelligence techniques: neural networks or support vector machines as base classifiers, a neural fuser to combine the individual classifiers, and a fuzzy measure for assessing the diversity of the ensemble and removal of individual classifiers from the ensemble. In addition, we address the problem of class imbalance that often occurs in medical data analysis, by training base classifiers on balanced object subspaces. Our experimental evaluation, on a large dataset of about 150 breast thermograms, convincingly shows our approach not only to provide excellent classification accuracy and sensitivity but also to outperform both canonical classification approaches as well as other classifier ensembles designed for imbalanced datasets.     

Multiobjective optimization for classifier ensemble and feature selection: an application to named entity recognition

In this paper, the concept of finding an appropriate classifier ensemble for named entity recognition is posed as a multiobjective optimization (MOO) problem. Our underlying assumption is that instead of searching for the best-fitting feature set for a particular classifier, ensembling of several classifiers those are trained using different feature representations could be a more fruitful approach, but it is crucial to determine the appropriate subset of classifiers that are most suitable for the ensemble. We use three heterogenous classifiers namely maximum entropy, conditional random field, and support vector machine in order to build a number of models depending upon the various representations of the available features. The proposed MOO-based ensemble technique is evaluated for three resource-constrained languages, namely Bengali, Hindi, and Telugu. Evaluation results yield the recall, precision, and F-measure values of 92.21, 92.72, and 92.46%, respectively, for Bengali; 97.07, 89.63, and 93.20%, respectively, for Hindi; and 80.79, 93.18, and 86.54%, respectively, for Telugu. We also evaluate our proposed technique with the CoNLL-2003 shared task English data sets that yield the recall, precision, and F-measure values of 89.72, 89.84, and 89.78%, respectively. Experimental results show that the classifier ensemble identified by our proposed MOO-based approach outperforms all the individual classifiers, two different conventional baseline ensembles, and the classifier ensemble identified by a single objective?Cbased approach. In a part of the paper, we formulate the problem of feature selection in any classifier under the MOO framework and show that our proposed classifier ensemble attains superior performance to it.     

Classification of major construction materials in construction environments using ensemble classifiers

The automatic detection of construction materials in images acquired on a construction site has been regarded as a critical topic. Recently, several data mining techniques have been used as a way to solve the problem of detecting construction materials. These studies have applied single classifiers to detect construction materials—and distinguish them from the background—by using color as a feature. Recent studies suggest that combining multiple classifiers (into what is called a heterogeneous ensemble classifier) would show better performance than using a single classifier. However, the performance of ensemble classifiers in construction material detection is not fully understood. In this study, we investigated the performance of six single classifiers and potential ensemble classifiers on three data sets: one each for concrete, steel, and wood. A heterogeneous voting-based ensemble classifier was created by selecting base classifiers which are diverse and accurate; their prediction probabilities for each target class were averaged to yield a final decision for that class. In comparison with the single classifiers, the ensemble classifiers performed better in the three data sets overall. This suggests that it is better to use an ensemble classifier to enhance the detection of construction materials in images acquired on a construction site.     

一种基于图像区域系综分类的室外场景理解方法

多层感知机分类器是一种有效的数据分类方法，但其分类性能受训练样本空间的限制。通过多层感知机分类器系综提高室外场景理解中图像区域的分类性能，提出了一种自动识别室外场景图像中多种景物所属概念类别的方法。该方法首先提取图像分割区域的低层视觉特征，然后基于系综分类方法建立区域视觉特征和语义类别的对应关系，通过合并相同标注区域，确定图像中景物的高层语义。对包含5种景物的150幅图像进行测试，识别率达到了87％。与基于多层感知机方法的实验结果相比，本文提出的方法取得了更好的性能，这表明该方法适合于图像区域分类。此外，系综方法还可以推广到其他的分类问题。     

Aggregative model-based classifier ensemble for improving land-use/cover classification of Landsat TM Images

This article proposes a new approach to improve the classification performance of remotely sensed images with an aggregative model based on classifier ensemble (AMCE). AMCE is a multi-classifier system with two procedures, namely ensemble learning and predictions combination. Two ensemble algorithms (Bagging and AdaBoost.M1) were used in the ensemble learning process to stabilize and improve the performance of single classifiers (i.e. maximum likelihood classifier, minimum distance classifier, back propagation neural network, classification and regression tree, and support vector machine (SVM)). Prediction results from single classifiers were integrated according to a diversity measurement with an averaged double-fault indicator and different combination strategies (i.e. weighted vote, Bayesian product, logarithmic consensus, and behaviour knowledge space). The suitability of the AMCE model was examined using a Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) image of Dongguan city (Guangdong, China), acquired on 2 January 2009. Experimental results show that the proposed model was significantly better than the most accurate single classification (i.e. SVM) in terms of classification accuracy (i.e. from 88.83% to 92.45%) and kappa coefficient (i.e. from 0.8624 to 0.9088). A stepwise comparison illustrates that both ensemble learning and predictions combination with the AMCE model improved classification.     

Pruning optimum-path forest ensembles using metaheuristic optimization for land-cover classification

Machine learning techniques have been actively pursued in the last years, mainly due to the increasing number of applications that make use of some sort of intelligent mechanism for decision-making processes. In this context, we shall highlight ensemble pruning strategies, which provide heuristics to select from a collection of classifiers the ones that can really improve recognition rates and provide efficiency by reducing the ensemble size prior to combining the model. In this article, we present and validate an ensemble pruning approach for Optimum-Path Forest (OPF) classifiers based on metaheuristic optimization over general-purpose data sets to validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach using distinct configurations in real and synthetic benchmark data sets, and thereafter, we apply the proposed approach in remote-sensing images to investigate the behaviour of the OPF classifier using pruning strategies. The image data sets were obtained from CBERS-2B, LANDSAT-5 TM, IKONOS-2 MS, and GEOEYE sensors, covering some areas of Brazil. The well-known Indian Pines data set was also used. In this work, we evaluate five different optimization algorithms for ensemble pruning, including that Particle Swarm Optimization, Harmony Search, Cuckoo Search, and Firefly Algorithm. In addition, we performed an empirical comparison between Support Vector Machine and OPF using the strategy of ensemble pruning. Experimental results showed the effectiveness and efficiency of ensemble pruning using OPF-based classification, especially concerning ensemble pruning using Harmony Search, which shows to be effective without degrading the performance when applied to large data sets, as well as a good data generalization.     

Similarity learning for texture image retrieval using multiple classifier system

Multiple Classifier System has found its applications in many areas such as handwriting recognition, speaker recognition, medical diagnosis, fingerprint recognition, personal identification and others. However, there have been rare attempts to develop content-based image retrieval (CBIR) system that uses multiple classifiers to learn visual similarity. Texture as a primitive visual content is often used in many important applications (viz. Medical image analysis and medical CBIR system). In this paper, a texture image retrieval system is developed that learns the visual similarity in terms of class membership using multiple classifiers. The way proposed approach combines the decisions of multiple classifiers to obtain final class memberships of query for each of the output classes is also a novel concept. A modified distance that is weighted with the membership values obtained through similarity learning is used for ranking. Three different algorithms are proposed for the retrieval of images against a query image displaying the strength of multiple classifier approach, class membership score and their interplay to achieve the objective defined in terms of simplicity, retrieval effectiveness and speed. The proposed methods based on multiple classifiers achieve higher retrieval accuracy with lower standard deviation compared to all the competing methods irrespective of the texture database and feature set used. The multiple classifier retrieval schemes proposed here is tested for texture image retrieval. However, these can be used for any other challenging retrieval problems.     

Classifier subset selection for biomedical named entity recognition

Classifier ensembling approach is considered for biomedical named entity recognition task. A vote-based classifier selection scheme having an intermediate level of search complexity between static classifier selection and real-valued and class-dependent weighting approaches is developed. Assuming that the reliability of the predictions of each classifier differs among classes, the proposed approach is based on selection of the classifiers by taking into account their individual votes. A wide set of classifiers, each based on a different set of features and modeling parameter setting are generated for this purpose. A genetic algorithm is developed so as to label the predictions of these classifiers as reliable or not. During testing, the votes that are labeled as being reliable are combined using weighted majority voting. The classifier ensemble formed by the proposed scheme surpasses the full object F-score of the best individual classifier by 2.75% and it is the highest score achieved on the data set considered.     

Ensemble Online Classifier Based on the One-Class Base Classifiers for Mining Data Streams

The problem addressed in this study concerns mining data streams with concept drift. The goal of the article is to propose and validate a new approach to mining data streams with concept-drift using the ensemble classifier constructed from the one-class base classifiers. It is assumed that base classifiers of the proposed ensemble are induced from incoming chunks of the data stream. Each chunk consists of prototypes and information about whether the class prediction of these instances, carried-out at earlier steps, has been correct. Each data chunk can be updated by using the instance selection technique when new data arrive. When a new data chunk is formed, the ensemble model is also updated on the basis of weights assigned to each one-class classifier. In this article, two well-known instance-based learning algorithms—the CNN and the ENN—have been adopted to solve the one-class classification problems and, consequently, update the proposed classifier ensemble. The proposed approaches have been validated experimentally, and the computational experiment results are shown and discussed. The experiment results prove that the proposed approach using the ensemble classifier constructed from the one-class base classifiers with instance selection for chunk updating can outperform well-known approaches for data streams with concept drift.     

Analysis of classification accuracy for pre-filtered multichannel remote sensing data

Noise is one of the main factors degrading the quality of original multichannel remote sensing data and its presence influences classification efficiency, object detection, etc. Thus, pre-filtering is often used to remove noise and improve the solving of final tasks of multichannel remote sensing. Recent studies indicate that a classical model of additive noise is not adequate enough for images formed by modern multichannel sensors operating in visible and infrared bands. However, this fact is often ignored by researchers designing noise removal methods and algorithms. Because of this, we focus on the classification of multichannel remote sensing images in the case of signal-dependent noise present in component images. Three approaches to filtering of multichannel images for the considered noise model are analysed, all based on discrete cosine transform in blocks. The study is carried out not only in terms of conventional efficiency metrics used in filtering (MSE) but also in terms of multichannel data classification accuracy (probability of correct classification, confusion matrix). The proposed classification system combines the pre-processing stage where a DCT-based filter processes the blocks of the multichannel remote sensing image and the classification stage. Two modern classifiers are employed, radial basis function neural network and support vector machines. Simulations are carried out for three-channel image of Landsat TM sensor. Different cases of learning are considered: using noise-free samples of the test multichannel image, the noisy multichannel image and the pre-filtered one. It is shown that the use of the pre-filtered image for training produces better classification in comparison to the case of learning for the noisy image. It is demonstrated that the best results for both groups of quantitative criteria are provided if a proposed 3D discrete cosine transform filter equipped by variance stabilizing transform is applied. The classification results obtained for data pre-filtered in different ways are in agreement for both considered classifiers. Comparison of classifier performance is carried out as well. The radial basis neural network classifier is less sensitive to noise in original images, but after pre-filtering the performance of both classifiers is approximately the same.     

NMC: nearest matrix classification – A new combination model for pruning One-vs-One ensembles by transforming the aggregation problem

The One-vs-One strategy is among the most used techniques to deal with multi-class problems in Machine Learning. This way, any binary classifier can be used to address the original problem, since one classifier is learned for each possible pair of classes. As in every ensemble method, classifier combination becomes a vital step in the classification process. Even though many combination models have been developed in the literature, none of them have dealt with the possibility of reducing the number of generated classifiers after the training phase, i.e., ensemble pruning, since every classifier is supposed to be necessary.On this account, our objective in this paper is two-fold: (1) We propose a transformation of the aggregation step, which lead us to a new combination strategy where instances are classified on the basis of the similarities among score-matrices. (2) This fact allows us to introduce the possibility of reducing the number of binary classifiers without affecting the final accuracy. We will show that around 50% of classifiers can be removed (depending on the base learner and the specific problem) and that the confidence degrees obtained by these base classifiers have a strong influence on the improvement in the final accuracy.A thorough experimental study is carried out in order to show the behavior of the proposed approach in comparison with the state-of-the-art combination models in the One-vs-One strategy. Different classifiers from various Machine Learning paradigms are considered as base classifiers and the results obtained are contrasted with the proper statistical analysis.     

Optimal resampling and classifier prototype selection in classifier ensembles using genetic algorithms

Ensembles of classifiers that are trained on different parts of the input space provide good results in general. As a popular boosting technique, AdaBoost is an iterative and gradient based deterministic method used for this purpose where an exponential loss function is minimized. Bagging is a random search based ensemble creation technique where the training set of each classifier is arbitrarily selected. In this paper, a genetic algorithm based ensemble creation approach is proposed where both resampled training sets and classifier prototypes evolve so as to maximize the combined accuracy. The objective function based random search procedure of the resultant system guided by both ensemble accuracy and diversity can be considered to share the basic properties of bagging and boosting. Experimental results have shown that the proposed approach provides better combined accuracies using a fewer number of classifiers than AdaBoost.     

Outlier detection based on a dynamic ensemble model: Applied to process monitoring

This paper focuses on outlier detection and its application to process monitoring. The main contribution is that we propose a dynamic ensemble detection model, of which one-class classifiers are used as base learners. Developing a dynamic ensemble model for one-class classification is challenging due to the absence of labeled training samples. To this end, we propose a procedure that can generate pseudo outliers, prior to which we transform outputs of all base classifiers to the form of probability. Then we use a probabilistic model to evaluate competence of all base classifiers. Friedman test along with Nemenyi test are used together to construct a switching mechanism. This is used for determining whether one classifier should be nominated to make the decision or a fusion method should be applied instead. Extensive experiments are carried out on 20 data sets and an industrial application to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.