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Unsupervised joint alignment and clustering using Bayesian nonparametrics
Proceedings of the Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (2012)
  • Marwan Mattar
  • Allen Hanson
  • Erik G Learned-Miller, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Abstract

Joint alignment of a collection of functions is the process of independently transforming the func- tions so that they appear more similar to each other. Typically, such unsupervised alignment al- gorithms fail when presented with complex data sets arising from multiple modalities or make re- strictive assumptions about the form of the func- tions or transformations, limiting their general- ity. We present a transformed Bayesian infinite mixture model that can simultaneously align and cluster a data set. Our model and associated learning scheme offer two key advantages: the optimal number of clusters is determined in a data-driven fashion through the use of a Dirichlet process prior, and it can accommodate any trans- formation function parameterized by a continu- ous parameter vector. As a result, it is applica- ble to a wide range of data types, and transfor- mation functions. We present positive results on synthetic two-dimensional data, on a set of one- dimensional curves, and on various image data sets, showing large improvements over previous work. We discuss several variations of the model and conclude with directions for future work.

Disciplines
Publication Date
2012
Citation Information
Marwan Mattar, Allen Hanson and Erik G Learned-Miller. "Unsupervised joint alignment and clustering using Bayesian nonparametrics" Proceedings of the Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (2012)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/erik_learned_miller/43/