--- tags: - ai --- # Linearity - Neurons can be linear or non-linear - Network of non-linear neurons is non-linear - Non-linearity is distributed - Helpful if target signals are generated non-linearly # Input-Output Mapping - Map input signal to desired response - [Supervised](../Learning.md#Supervised) learning - Similar to non-parametric statistical inference - Non-parametric as in no prior assumptions - No probabilistic model # Adaptivity - Synaptic weights - Can be easily retrained - Stationary environment - Essential statistics can be learned - Model can then be frozen - Non-stationary environments - Can change weights in real-time - In general, more adaptive = more robust - Not always though - Short time-constant system may be thrown by short-time spurious disturbances - Stability-plasticity dilemma - Not equipped to track statistical variations - Adaptive system - Linear adaptive filter - Linear combiner - Single neuron operating in linear mode - Mature applications - Nonlinear adaptive filters - Less mature - Environments typically considered pseudo-stationary - Speech stationary over short windows - Retrain network at regular intervals to account for fluctuations - E.g. stock market - Train network on short time window - Add new data and pop old - Slide window - Retrain network # Evidential Response - Decisions are made with evidence not just declared - Confidence value # Contextual Information - [Knowledge](Neural%20Networks.md#Knowledge) represented by structure and activation weight - Any neuron can be affected by global activity - Contextual information handled naturally # Fault Tolerance - Hardware implementations - Performance degrades gracefully with adverse conditions - If some of it breaks, it won't cause the whole thing to break - Like a real brain # VLSI Implementability - Very large-scale integration - Chips with millions of transistors (MOS) - E.g. microprocessor, memory chips - Massively parallel nature - Well suited for VLSI # Uniformity in Analysis - Are domain agnostic in application - Analysis methods are the same - Can share theories, learning algorithms # Neurobiological Analogy - Design analogous to brain - Already a demonstrable fault-tolerant, powerful, fast, parallel processor - To slight changes - Rotation of target in images - Doppler shift in radar - Network needs to be invariant to these transformations # Invariance 1. Invariance by Structure - Synaptic connections created so that transformed input produces same output - Set same weight for neurons of some geometric relationship to image - Same distance from centre e.g. - Number of connections becomes prohibitively large 2. Invariance by Training - Train on different views/transformations - Take advantage of inherent pattern classification abilities - Training for invariance for one object is not necessarily going to train other classes for invariance - Extra load on network to do more training - Exacerbated with high dimensionality 3. Invariant Feature Space - Extract invariant features - Use network as classifier - Relieves burden on network to achieve invariance - Complicated decision boundaries - Number of features applied to network reduced - Invariance ensured - Required prior knowledge