Pattern recognition using asymmetric attractor neural networks

Abstract

The asymmetric attractor neural networks designed by the Monte Carlo- (MC-) adaptation rule are shown to be promising candidates for pattern recognition. In such a neural network with relatively low symmetry, when the members of a set of template patterns are stored as fixed-point attractors, their attraction basins are shown to be isolated islands embedded in a "chaotic sea." The sizes of these islands can be controlled by a single parameter. We show that these properties can be used for effective pattern recognition and rejection. In our method, the pattern to be identified is attracted to a template pattern or a chaotic attractor. If the difference between the pattern to be identified and the template pattern is smaller than a predescribed threshold, the pattern is attracted to the template pattern automatically and thus is identified as belonging to this template pattern. Otherwise, it wanders in a chaotic attractor for ever and thus is rejected as an unknown pattern. The maximum sizes of these islands allowed by this kind of neural networks are determined by a modified MC-adaptation rule which are shown to be able to dramatically enlarge the sizes of the islands. We illustrate the use of our method for pattern recognition and rejection with an example of recognizing a set of Chinese characters.