Evolution of heterogeneous ensembles through dynamic particle swarm optimization for video-based face recognition

In many real-world applications, pattern recognition systems are designed a priori using limited and imbalanced data acquired from complex changing environments. Since new reference data often becomes available during operations, performance could be maintained or improved by adapting these systems through supervised incremental learning. To avoid knowledge corruption and sustain a high level of accuracy over time, an adaptive multiclassifier system (AMCS) may integrate information from diverse classifiers that are guided by a population-based evolutionary optimization algorithm. In this paper, an incremental learning strategy based on dynamic particle swarm optimization (DPSO) is proposed to evolve heterogeneous ensembles of classifiers (where each classifier corresponds to a particle) in response to new reference samples. This new strategy is applied to video-based face recognition, using an AMCS that consists of a pool of fuzzy ARTMAP (FAM) neural networks for classification of facial regions, and a niching version of DPSO that optimizes all FAM parameters such that the classification rate is maximized. Given that diversity within a dynamic particle swarm is correlated with diversity within a corresponding pool of base classifiers, DPSO properties are exploited to generate and evolve diversified pools of FAM classifiers, and to efficiently select ensembles among the pools based on accuracy and particle swarm diversity. Performance of the proposed strategy is assessed in terms of classification rate and resource requirements under different incremental learning scenarios, where new reference data is extracted from real-world video streams. Simulation results indicate the DPSO strategy provides an efficient way to evolve ensembles of FAM networks in an AMCS. Maintaining particle diversity in the optimization space yields a level of accuracy that is comparable to AMCS using reference ensemble-based and batch learning techniques, but requires significantly lower computational complexity than assessing diversity among classifiers in the feature or decision spaces.