Information Fusion and Hierarchical Knowledge Discovery by ARTMAP Neural Networks

Mapping novel terrain from sparse, complex data often requires the resolution of conflicting information from sensors working at different times, locations, and scales, and from experts with different goals and situations. Information fusion methods help resolve inconsistencies in order to distinguish correct from incorrect answers, as when evidence variously suggests that an object's class is car, truck, or airplane. The methods developed here consider a complementary problem, supposing that information from sensors and experts is reliable though inconsistent, as when evidence suggests that an objects class is car, vehicle, or man-made. Underlying relationships among objects are assumed to be unknown to the automated system of the human user. The ARTMAP information fusion system uses distributed code representations that exploit the neural network's capacity for one-to-many learning in order to produce self-organizing expert systems that discover hierarchial knowledge structures. The system infers multi-level relationships among groups of output classes, without any supervised labeling of these relationships. The procedure is illustrated with two image examples.

Self-Organizing Hierarchical Knowledge Discovery by an ARTMAP Image Fusion System

Classifying novel terrain or objects front sparse, complex data may require the resolution of conflicting information from sensors working at different times, locations, and scales, and from sources with different goals and situations. Information fusion methods can help resolve inconsistencies, as when evidence variously suggests that an object's class is car, truck, or airplane. The methods described here consider a complementary problem, supposing that information from sensors and experts is reliable though inconsistent, as when evidence suggests that an object's class is car, vehicle, and man-made. Underlying relationships among objects are assumed to be unknown to the automated system or the human user. The ARTMAP information fusion system used distributed code representations that exploit the neural network's capacity for one-to-many learning in order to produce self-organizing expert systems that discover hierarchical knowledge structures. The system infers multi-level relationships among groups of output classes, without any supervised labeling of these relationships.

Biologically Inspired Approaches to Automated Feature Extraction and Target Recognition

Ongoing research at Boston University has produced computational models of biological vision and learning that embody a growing corpus of scientific data and predictions. Vision models perform long-range grouping and figure/ground segmentation, and memory models create attentionally controlled recognition codes that intrinsically cornbine botton-up activation and top-down learned expectations. These two streams of research form the foundation of novel dynamically integrated systems for image understanding. Simulations using multispectral images illustrate road completion across occlusions in a cluttered scene and information fusion from incorrect labels that are simultaneously inconsistent and correct. The CNS Vision and Technology Labs (cns.bu.edulvisionlab and cns.bu.edu/techlab) are further integrating science and technology through analysis, testing, and development of cognitive and neural models for large-scale applications, complemented by software specification and code distribution.

Self-Organizing Information Fusion and Hierarchical Knowledge Discovery: A New Framework Using Artmap Neural Networks

Classifying novel terrain or objects from sparse, complex data may require the resolution of conflicting information from sensors woring at different times, locations, and scales, and from sources with different goals and situations. Information fusion methods can help resolve inconsistencies, as when eveidence variously suggests that and object's class is car, truck, or airplane. The methods described her address a complementary problem, supposing that information from sensors and experts is reliable though inconsistent, as when evidence suggests that an object's class is car, vehicle, and man-made. Underlying relationships among classes are assumed to be unknown to the autonomated system or the human user. The ARTMAP information fusion system uses distributed code representations that exploit the neural network's capacity for one-to-many learning in order to produce self-organizing expert systems that discover hierachical knowlege structures. The fusion system infers multi-level relationships among groups of output classes, without any supervised labeling of these relationships. The procedure is illustrated with two image examples, but is not limited to image domain.