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Pattern recognition is the task of assigning a class to an observation based on patterns extracted from data. While similar, pattern recognition (PR) is not to be confused with pattern machines (PM) which may possess (PR) capabilities but their primary function is to distinguish and create emergent patterns. PR has applications in statistical data analysis, signal processing, image analysis, information retrieval, bioinformatics, data compression, computer graphics and machine learning. Pattern recognition has its origins in statistics and engineering; some modern approaches to pattern recognition include the use of machine learning, due to the increased availability of big data and a new abundance of processing power.
Pattern recognition systems are commonly trained from labeled "training" data. When no labeled data are available, other algorithms can be used to discover previously unknown patterns. KDD and data mining have a larger focus on unsupervised methods and stronger connection to business use. Pattern recognition focuses more on the signal and also takes acquisition and signal processing into consideration. It originated in engineering, and the term is popular in the context of computer vision: a leading computer vision conference is named Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.
In machine learning, pattern recognition is the assignment of a label to a given input value. In statistics, discriminant analysis was introduced for this same purpose in 1936. An example of pattern recognition is classification, which attempts to assign each input value to one of a given set of classes (for example, determine whether a given email is "spam"). Pattern recognition is a more general problem that encompasses other types of output as well. Other examples are regression, which assigns a real-valued output to each input; [1] sequence labeling, which assigns a class to each member of a sequence of values [2] (for example, part of speech tagging, which assigns a part of speech to each word in an input sentence); and parsing, which assigns a parse tree to an input sentence, describing the syntactic structure of the sentence. [3]
Pattern recognition algorithms generally aim to provide a reasonable answer for all possible inputs and to perform "most likely" matching of the inputs, taking into account their statistical variation. This is opposed to pattern matching algorithms, which look for exact matches in the input with pre-existing patterns. A common example of a pattern-matching algorithm is regular expression matching, which looks for patterns of a given sort in textual data and is included in the search capabilities of many text editors and word processors.
A modern definition of pattern recognition is:
The field of pattern recognition is concerned with the automatic discovery of regularities in data through the use of computer algorithms and with the use of these regularities to take actions such as classifying the data into different categories. [4]
Pattern recognition is generally categorized according to the type of learning procedure used to generate the output value. Supervised learning assumes that a set of training data (the training set) has been provided, consisting of a set of instances that have been properly labeled by hand with the correct output. A learning procedure then generates a model that attempts to meet two sometimes conflicting objectives: Perform as well as possible on the training data, and generalize as well as possible to new data (usually, this means being as simple as possible, for some technical definition of "simple", in accordance with Occam's Razor, discussed below). Unsupervised learning, on the other hand, assumes training data that has not been hand-labeled, and attempts to find inherent patterns in the data that can then be used to determine the correct output value for new data instances. [5] A combination of the two that has been explored is semi-supervised learning, which uses a combination of labeled and unlabeled data (typically a small set of labeled data combined with a large amount of unlabeled data). In cases of unsupervised learning, there may be no training data at all.
Sometimes different terms are used to describe the corresponding supervised and unsupervised learning procedures for the same type of output. The unsupervised equivalent of classification is normally known as clustering , based on the common perception of the task as involving no training data to speak of, and of grouping the input data into clusters based on some inherent similarity measure (e.g. the distance between instances, considered as vectors in a multi-dimensional vector space), rather than assigning each input instance into one of a set of pre-defined classes. In some fields, the terminology is different. In community ecology, the term classification is used to refer to what is commonly known as "clustering".
The piece of input data for which an output value is generated is formally termed an instance. The instance is formally described by a vector of features, which together constitute a description of all known characteristics of the instance. These feature vectors can be seen as defining points in an appropriate multidimensional space, and methods for manipulating vectors in vector spaces can be correspondingly applied to them, such as computing the dot product or the angle between two vectors. Features typically are either categorical (also known as nominal, i.e., consisting of one of a set of unordered items, such as a gender of "male" or "female", or a blood type of "A", "B", "AB" or "O"), ordinal (consisting of one of a set of ordered items, e.g., "large", "medium" or "small"), integer-valued (e.g., a count of the number of occurrences of a particular word in an email) or real-valued (e.g., a measurement of blood pressure). Often, categorical and ordinal data are grouped together, and this is also the case for integer-valued and real-valued data. Many algorithms work only in terms of categorical data and require that real-valued or integer-valued data be discretized into groups (e.g., less than 5, between 5 and 10, or greater than 10).
Many common pattern recognition algorithms are probabilistic in nature, in that they use statistical inference to find the best label for a given instance. Unlike other algorithms, which simply output a "best" label, often probabilistic algorithms also output a probability of the instance being described by the given label. In addition, many probabilistic algorithms output a list of the N-best labels with associated probabilities, for some value of N, instead of simply a single best label. When the number of possible labels is fairly small (e.g., in the case of classification), N may be set so that the probability of all possible labels is output. Probabilistic algorithms have many advantages over non-probabilistic algorithms:
Feature selection algorithms attempt to directly prune out redundant or irrelevant features. A general introduction to feature selection which summarizes approaches and challenges, has been given. [6] The complexity of feature-selection is, because of its non-monotonous character, an optimization problem where given a total of features the powerset consisting of all subsets of features need to be explored. The Branch-and-Bound algorithm [7] does reduce this complexity but is intractable for medium to large values of the number of available features
Techniques to transform the raw feature vectors (feature extraction) are sometimes used prior to application of the pattern-matching algorithm. Feature extraction algorithms attempt to reduce a large-dimensionality feature vector into a smaller-dimensionality vector that is easier to work with and encodes less redundancy, using mathematical techniques such as principal components analysis (PCA). The distinction between feature selection and feature extraction is that the resulting features after feature extraction has taken place are of a different sort than the original features and may not easily be interpretable, while the features left after feature selection are simply a subset of the original features.
The problem of pattern recognition can be stated as follows: Given an unknown function (the ground truth) that maps input instances to output labels , along with training data assumed to represent accurate examples of the mapping, produce a function that approximates as closely as possible the correct mapping . (For example, if the problem is filtering spam, then is some representation of an email and is either "spam" or "non-spam"). In order for this to be a well-defined problem, "approximates as closely as possible" needs to be defined rigorously. In decision theory, this is defined by specifying a loss function or cost function that assigns a specific value to "loss" resulting from producing an incorrect label. The goal then is to minimize the expected loss, with the expectation taken over the probability distribution of . In practice, neither the distribution of nor the ground truth function are known exactly, but can be computed only empirically by collecting a large number of samples of and hand-labeling them using the correct value of (a time-consuming process, which is typically the limiting factor in the amount of data of this sort that can be collected). The particular loss function depends on the type of label being predicted. For example, in the case of classification, the simple zero-one loss function is often sufficient. This corresponds simply to assigning a loss of 1 to any incorrect labeling and implies that the optimal classifier minimizes the error rate on independent test data (i.e. counting up the fraction of instances that the learned function labels wrongly, which is equivalent to maximizing the number of correctly classified instances). The goal of the learning procedure is then to minimize the error rate (maximize the correctness) on a "typical" test set.
For a probabilistic pattern recognizer, the problem is instead to estimate the probability of each possible output label given a particular input instance, i.e., to estimate a function of the form
where the feature vector input is , and the function f is typically parameterized by some parameters . [8] In a discriminative approach to the problem, f is estimated directly. In a generative approach, however, the inverse probability is instead estimated and combined with the prior probability using Bayes' rule, as follows:
When the labels are continuously distributed (e.g., in regression analysis), the denominator involves integration rather than summation:
The value of is typically learned using maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation. This finds the best value that simultaneously meets two conflicting objects: To perform as well as possible on the training data (smallest error-rate) and to find the simplest possible model. Essentially, this combines maximum likelihood estimation with a regularization procedure that favors simpler models over more complex models. In a Bayesian context, the regularization procedure can be viewed as placing a prior probability on different values of . Mathematically:
where is the value used for in the subsequent evaluation procedure, and , the posterior probability of , is given by
In the Bayesian approach to this problem, instead of choosing a single parameter vector , the probability of a given label for a new instance is computed by integrating over all possible values of , weighted according to the posterior probability:
The first pattern classifier – the linear discriminant presented by Fisher – was developed in the frequentist tradition. The frequentist approach entails that the model parameters are considered unknown, but objective. The parameters are then computed (estimated) from the collected data. For the linear discriminant, these parameters are precisely the mean vectors and the covariance matrix. Also the probability of each class is estimated from the collected dataset. Note that the usage of 'Bayes rule' in a pattern classifier does not make the classification approach Bayesian.
Bayesian statistics has its origin in Greek philosophy where a distinction was already made between the 'a priori' and the 'a posteriori' knowledge. Later Kant defined his distinction between what is a priori known – before observation – and the empirical knowledge gained from observations. In a Bayesian pattern classifier, the class probabilities can be chosen by the user, which are then a priori. Moreover, experience quantified as a priori parameter values can be weighted with empirical observations – using e.g., the Beta- (conjugate prior) and Dirichlet-distributions. The Bayesian approach facilitates a seamless intermixing between expert knowledge in the form of subjective probabilities, and objective observations.
Probabilistic pattern classifiers can be used according to a frequentist or a Bayesian approach.
Within medical science, pattern recognition is the basis for computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems. CAD describes a procedure that supports the doctor's interpretations and findings. Other typical applications of pattern recognition techniques are automatic speech recognition, speaker identification, classification of text into several categories (e.g., spam or non-spam email messages), the automatic recognition of handwriting on postal envelopes, automatic recognition of images of human faces, or handwriting image extraction from medical forms. [9] [10] The last two examples form the subtopic image analysis of pattern recognition that deals with digital images as input to pattern recognition systems. [11] [12]
Optical character recognition is an example of the application of a pattern classifier. The method of signing one's name was captured with stylus and overlay starting in 1990.[ citation needed ] The strokes, speed, relative min, relative max, acceleration and pressure is used to uniquely identify and confirm identity. Banks were first offered this technology, but were content to collect from the FDIC for any bank fraud and did not want to inconvenience customers.[ citation needed ]
Pattern recognition has many real-world applications in image processing. Some examples include:
In psychology, pattern recognition is used to make sense of and identify objects, and is closely related to perception. This explains how the sensory inputs humans receive are made meaningful. Pattern recognition can be thought of in two different ways. The first concerns template matching and the second concerns feature detection. A template is a pattern used to produce items of the same proportions. The template-matching hypothesis suggests that incoming stimuli are compared with templates in the long-term memory. If there is a match, the stimulus is identified. Feature detection models, such as the Pandemonium system for classifying letters (Selfridge, 1959), suggest that the stimuli are broken down into their component parts for identification. One observation is a capital E having three horizontal lines and one vertical line. [22]
Algorithms for pattern recognition depend on the type of label output, on whether learning is supervised or unsupervised, and on whether the algorithm is statistical or non-statistical in nature. Statistical algorithms can further be categorized as generative or discriminative.
Parametric: [23]
Nonparametric: [24]
Unsupervised:
Supervised learning (SL) is a paradigm in machine learning where input objects and a desired output value train a model. The training data is processed, building a function that maps new data to expected output values. An optimal scenario will allow for the algorithm to correctly determine output values for unseen instances. This requires the learning algorithm to generalize from the training data to unseen situations in a "reasonable" way. This statistical quality of an algorithm is measured through the so-called generalization error.
In machine learning, a linear classifier makes a classification decision for each object based on a linear combination of its features. Such classifiers work well for practical problems such as document classification, and more generally for problems with many variables (features), reaching accuracy levels comparable to non-linear classifiers while taking less time to train and use.
In probability theory and statistics, a Gaussian process is a stochastic process, such that every finite collection of those random variables has a multivariate normal distribution. The distribution of a Gaussian process is the joint distribution of all those random variables, and as such, it is a distribution over functions with a continuous domain, e.g. time or space.
In Vapnik–Chervonenkis theory, the Vapnik–Chervonenkis (VC) dimension is a measure of the size of a class of sets. The notion can be extended to classes of binary functions. It is defined as the cardinality of the largest set of points that the algorithm can shatter, which means the algorithm can always learn a perfect classifier for any labeling of at least one configuration of those data points. It was originally defined by Vladimir Vapnik and Alexey Chervonenkis.
In statistics, an expectation–maximization (EM) algorithm is an iterative method to find (local) maximum likelihood or maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimates of parameters in statistical models, where the model depends on unobserved latent variables. The EM iteration alternates between performing an expectation (E) step, which creates a function for the expectation of the log-likelihood evaluated using the current estimate for the parameters, and a maximization (M) step, which computes parameters maximizing the expected log-likelihood found on the E step. These parameter-estimates are then used to determine the distribution of the latent variables in the next E step. It can be used, for example, to estimate a mixture of gaussians, or to solve the multiple linear regression problem.
In statistics, a generalized linear model (GLM) is a flexible generalization of ordinary linear regression. The GLM generalizes linear regression by allowing the linear model to be related to the response variable via a link function and by allowing the magnitude of the variance of each measurement to be a function of its predicted value.
In statistics, a mixture model is a probabilistic model for representing the presence of subpopulations within an overall population, without requiring that an observed data set should identify the sub-population to which an individual observation belongs. Formally a mixture model corresponds to the mixture distribution that represents the probability distribution of observations in the overall population. However, while problems associated with "mixture distributions" relate to deriving the properties of the overall population from those of the sub-populations, "mixture models" are used to make statistical inferences about the properties of the sub-populations given only observations on the pooled population, without sub-population identity information. Mixture models are used for clustering, under the name model-based clustering, and also for density estimation.
Statistical learning theory is a framework for machine learning drawing from the fields of statistics and functional analysis. Statistical learning theory deals with the statistical inference problem of finding a predictive function based on data. Statistical learning theory has led to successful applications in fields such as computer vision, speech recognition, and bioinformatics.
Empirical risk minimization is a principle in statistical learning theory which defines a family of learning algorithms based on evaluating performance over a known and fixed dataset. The core idea is based on an application of the law of large numbers; more specifically, we cannot know exactly how well a predictive algorithm will work in practice because we do not know the true distribution of the data, but we can instead estimate and optimize the performance of the algorithm on a known set of training data. The performance over the known set of training data is referred to as the "empirical risk".
When classification is performed by a computer, statistical methods are normally used to develop the algorithm.
In information theory, the cross-entropy between two probability distributions and , over the same underlying set of events, measures the average number of bits needed to identify an event drawn from the set when the coding scheme used for the set is optimized for an estimated probability distribution , rather than the true distribution .
In machine learning, kernel machines are a class of algorithms for pattern analysis, whose best known member is the support-vector machine (SVM). These methods involve using linear classifiers to solve nonlinear problems. The general task of pattern analysis is to find and study general types of relations in datasets. For many algorithms that solve these tasks, the data in raw representation have to be explicitly transformed into feature vector representations via a user-specified feature map: in contrast, kernel methods require only a user-specified kernel, i.e., a similarity function over all pairs of data points computed using inner products. The feature map in kernel machines is infinite dimensional but only requires a finite dimensional matrix from user-input according to the Representer theorem. Kernel machines are slow to compute for datasets larger than a couple of thousand examples without parallel processing.
Conditional random fields (CRFs) are a class of statistical modeling methods often applied in pattern recognition and machine learning and used for structured prediction. Whereas a classifier predicts a label for a single sample without considering "neighbouring" samples, a CRF can take context into account. To do so, the predictions are modelled as a graphical model, which represents the presence of dependencies between the predictions. What kind of graph is used depends on the application. For example, in natural language processing, "linear chain" CRFs are popular, for which each prediction is dependent only on its immediate neighbours. In image processing, the graph typically connects locations to nearby and/or similar locations to enforce that they receive similar predictions.
Uncertainty quantification (UQ) is the science of quantitative characterization and estimation of uncertainties in both computational and real world applications. It tries to determine how likely certain outcomes are if some aspects of the system are not exactly known. An example would be to predict the acceleration of a human body in a head-on crash with another car: even if the speed was exactly known, small differences in the manufacturing of individual cars, how tightly every bolt has been tightened, etc., will lead to different results that can only be predicted in a statistical sense.
Pattern recognition is a very active field of research intimately bound to machine learning. Also known as classification or statistical classification, pattern recognition aims at building a classifier that can determine the class of an input pattern. This procedure, known as training, corresponds to learning an unknown decision function based only on a set of input-output pairs that form the training data. Nonetheless, in real world applications such as character recognition, a certain amount of information on the problem is usually known beforehand. The incorporation of this prior knowledge into the training is the key element that will allow an increase of performance in many applications.
Linear Programming Boosting (LPBoost) is a supervised classifier from the boosting family of classifiers. LPBoost maximizes a margin between training samples of different classes and hence also belongs to the class of margin-maximizing supervised classification algorithms. Consider a classification function
The structured support-vector machine is a machine learning algorithm that generalizes the Support-Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. Whereas the SVM classifier supports binary classification, multiclass classification and regression, the structured SVM allows training of a classifier for general structured output labels.
Weak supervision is a paradigm in machine learning, the relevance and notability of which increased with the advent of large language models due to large amount of data required to train them. It is characterized by using a combination of a small amount of human-labeled data, followed by a large amount of unlabeled data. In other words, the desired output values are provided only for a subset of the training data. The remaining data is unlabeled or imprecisely labeled. Intuitively, it can be seen as an exam and labeled data as sample problems that the teacher solves for the class as an aid in solving another set of problems. In the transductive setting, these unsolved problems act as exam questions. In the inductive setting, they become practice problems of the sort that will make up the exam. Technically, it could be viewed as performing clustering and then labeling the clusters with the labeled data, pushing the decision boundary away from high-density regions, or learning an underlying one-dimensional manifold where the data reside.
In machine learning, a variational autoencoder (VAE) is an artificial neural network architecture introduced by Diederik P. Kingma and Max Welling. It is part of the families of probabilistic graphical models and variational Bayesian methods.
An energy-based model (EBM) (also called a Canonical Ensemble Learning(CEL) or Learning via Canonical Ensemble (LCE)) is an application of canonical ensemble formulation of statistical physics for learning from data problems. The approach prominently appears in generative models (GMs).
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