META-DES: A dynamic ensemble selection framework using meta-learning. Issue 5 (May 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cruz, Rafael M.O.; Sabourin, Robert; Cavalcanti, George D.C.; Ing Ren, Tsang
• Is Part Of: Pattern recognition. Volume 48:Issue 5(2015:May)
• Page Start: 1925
• Page End: 1935
• Publication Date: 2015-05
• Subjects: Pattern perception -- Periodicals; Perception des structures -- Périodiques; Patroonherkenning; 006.4
• DOI: 10.1016/j.patcog.2014.12.003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0031-3203

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="author" id="ab0005"> <title id="sect0005">Abstract</title> <sec> <p id="sp0050">Dynamic ensemble selection systems work by estimating the level of competence of each classifier from a pool of classifiers. Only the most competent ones are selected to classify a given test sample. This is achieved by defining a criterion to measure the level of competence of a base classifier, such as, its accuracy in local regions of the feature space around the query instance. However, using only one criterion about the behavior of a base classifier is not sufficient to accurately estimate its level of competence. In this paper, we present a novel dynamic ensemble selection framework using meta-learning. We propose five distinct sets of meta-features, each one corresponding to a different criterion to measure the level of competence of a classifier for the classification of input samples. The meta-features are extracted from the training data and used to train a meta-classifier to predict whether or not a base classifier is competent enough to classify an input instance. During the generalization phase, the meta-features are extracted from the query instance and passed down as input to the meta-classifier. The meta-classifier estimates, whether a base classifier is competent enough to be added to the ensemble. Experiments are conducted over several small sample size classification problems, i.e., problems with a high degree of uncertainty due to the lack of training data. Experimental results show that the proposed meta-learning framework greatly improves classification accuracy when compared against current state-of-the-art dynamic ensemble selection techniques.</p> </sec> </abstract>