Fuzzy relational classifier trained by fuzzy clustering

A novel approach to nonlinear classification is presented, in the training phase of the classifier, the training data is first clustered in an unsupervised way by fuzzy c-means or a similar algorithm. The class labels are not used in this step. Then, a fuzzy relation between the clusters and the class identifiers is computed. This approach allows the number of prototypes to be independent of the number of actual classes. For the classification of unseen patterns, the membership degrees of the feature vector in the clusters are first computed by using the distance measure of the clustering algorithm. Then, the output fuzzy set is obtained by relational composition. This fuzzy set contains the membership degrees of the pattern in the given classes. A crisp decision is obtained by defuzzification, which gives either a single class or a "reject" decision, when a unique class cannot be selected based on the available information. The principle of the proposed method is demonstrated on an artificial data set and the applicability of the method is shown on the identification of live-stock from recorded sound sequences. The obtained results are compared with two other classifiers.