Optimal Infomation-based Classification
by Hyun, Baro, Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, 2011, 147 pages; 3476556

Abstract:

Classification is the allocation of an object to an existing category among several based on uncertain measurements. Since information is used to quantify uncertainty, it is natural to consider classification and information as complementary subjects. This dissertation touches upon several topics that relate to the problem of classification, such as information, classification, and team classification. Motivated by the U.S. Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance missions, we investigate the aforementioned topics for classifiers that follow two models: classifiers with workload-independent and workload-dependent performance. We adopt workload-independence and dependence as "first-order" models to capture the features of machines and humans, respectively.

We first investigate the relationship between information in the sense of Shannon and classification performance, which is defined as the probability of misclassification. We show that while there is a predominant congruence between them, there are cases when such congruence is violated. We show the phenomenon for both workload-independent and workload-dependent classifiers and investigate the cause of such phenomena analytically.

One way of making classification decisions is by setting a threshold on a measured quantity. For instance, if a measurement falls on one side of the threshold, the object that provided the measurement is classified as one type, otherwise, it is of another type. Exploiting thresholding, we formalize a classifier with dichotomous decisions (i.e., with two options, such as true or false) given a single variable measurement. We further extend the formalization to classifiers with trichotomy (i.e., with three options, such as true, false or unknown) and with multivariate measurements.

When a team of classifiers is considered, issues on how to exploit redundant numbers of classifiers arise. We analyze these classifiers under different architectures, such as parallel or nested. First, we consider a team of homogeneous (identical) classifiers and provide a fusion-rule, supervisor-based strategy using a parallel architecture. Then, we consider a team of heterogeneous classifiers and provide a strategy using a nested architecture. We show results that confirm that both strategies outperform a single classifier.

 
AdvisersAnouck R. Girard; Pierre T. Kabamba
SchoolUNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SourceDAI/B 72-12, p. , Oct 2011
Source TypeDissertation
SubjectsAerospace engineering; Robotics; Computer science
Publication Number3476556
Adobe PDF Access the complete dissertation:
 

» Find an electronic copy at your library.
  Use the link below to access a full citation record of this graduate work:
  http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl%3furl_ver=Z39.88-2004%26res_dat=xri:pqdiss%26rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation%26rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3476556
  If your library subscribes to the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database, you may be entitled to a free electronic version of this graduate work. If not, you will have the option to purchase one, and access a 24 page preview for free (if available).

About ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
With over 2.3 million records, the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database is the most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses in the world. It is the database of record for graduate research.

The database includes citations of graduate works ranging from the first U.S. dissertation, accepted in 1861, to those accepted as recently as last semester. Of the 2.3 million graduate works included in the database, ProQuest offers more than 1.9 million in full text formats. Of those, over 860,000 are available in PDF format. More than 60,000 dissertations and theses are added to the database each year.

If you have questions, please feel free to visit the ProQuest Web site - http://www.proquest.com - or call ProQuest Hotline Customer Support at 1-800-521-3042.