Method and apparatus for clustering data
US6021383A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 7, 1996 |
| Grant date | Feb 1, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 7, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06V20/13
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus for partitioning a data set for clustering, based on the physical properties of an inhomogeneous ferromagnet. No assumption is made regarding the underlying distribution of the data. A Potts spin is assigned to each data point and an interaction between neighboring points is introduced, whose strength is a decreasing function of the distance between the neighbors. This magnetic system exhibits three phases. At very low temperatures it is completely ordered; i.e. all spins are aligned. At very high temperatures the system does not exhibit any ordering and in an intermediate regime clusters of relatively strongly coupled spins become ordered, whereas different clusters remain uncorrelated. This intermediate phase is identified by a jump in the order parameters. The spin--spin correlation function is used to partition the spins and the corresponding data points into clusters.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.