Interactive exploration of fuzzy clusters using neighborgrams

We describe an interactive method to generate a set of fuzzy clusters for classes of interest of a given, labeled data set. The presented method is therefore best suited for applications where the focus of analysis lies on a model for the minority class or for small- to medium-size data sets. The clustering algorithm creates one-dimensional models of the neighborhood for a set of patterns by constructing cluster candidates for each pattern of interest and then chooses the best subset of clusters that form a global model of the data. The accompanying visualization of these neighborhoods allows the user to interact with the clustering process by selecting, discarding, or fine-tuning potential cluster candidates. Clusters can be crisp or fuzzy and the latter leads to a substantial improvement of the classification accuracy. We demonstrate the performance of the underlying algorithm on several data sets from the StatLog project.