Genetic algorithms in classifier fusion

An intense research around classifier fusion in recent years revealed that combining performance strongly depends on careful selection of classifiers to be combined. Classifier performance depends, in turn, on careful selection of features, which could be further restricted by the subspaces of the data domain. On the other hand, there is already a number of classifier fusion techniques available and the choice of the most suitable method depends back on the selections made within classifier, features and data spaces. In all these multidimensional selection tasks genetic algorithms (GA) appear to be one of the most suitable techniques providing reasonable balance between searching complexity and the performance of the solutions found. In this work, an attempt is made to revise the capability of genetic algorithms to be applied to selection across many dimensions of the classifier fusion process including data, features, classifiers and even classifier combiners. In the first of the discussed models the potential for combined classification improvement by GA-selected weights for the soft combining of classifier outputs has been investigated. The second of the proposed models describes a more general system where the specifically designed GA is applied to selection carried out simultaneously along many dimensions of the classifier fusion process. Both, the weighted soft combiners and the prototype of the three-dimensional fusion - classifier - feature selection model have been developed and tested using typical benchmark datasets and some comparative experimental results are also presented. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.