Exploring the development and application of LSTM variants

Abstract

Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) is receiving increasing attention as the development of deep learning technology. The gate structure of LSTM enhances long-term memory, forming its superior capacity to complete tasks that challenge traditional RNN. However, considering the wide variety of applications, a comprehensive understanding of the development and application of the model, which is vital for future research, is comparatively lacking. Therefore, this paper is produced with the hope of offering an overview of the development of LSTM. It shows the process of development from RNN to LSTM and explains the aim and necessity of LSTMs birth. After that it introduces the structure of LSTM, analyses its advantages over RNN, and discusses the application of some popular LSTM variants, such as peephole LSTM, bidirectional LSTM, and GRU. Hopefully, this work can provide a more profound knowledge of LSTM's benefits and potential, identifying worthwhile avenues or fields of future research.