KB-CB-N classification: Towards unsupervised approach for supervised learning

Abstract

Data classification has attracted considerable research attention in the field of computational statistics and data mining due to its wide range of applications. K Best Cluster Based Neighbour (KB-CB-N) is our novel classification technique based on the integration of three different similarity measures for cluster based classification. The basic principle is to apply unsupervised learning on the instances of each class in the dataset and then use the output as an input for the classification algorithm to find the K best neighbours of clusters from the density, gravity and distance perspectives. Clustering is applied as an initial step within each class to find the inherent in-class grouping in the dataset. Different data clustering techniques use different similarity measures. Each measure has its own strength and weakness. Thus, combining the three measures can benefit from the strength of each one and eliminate encountered problems of using an individual measure. Extensive experimental results using eight real datasets have evidenced that our new technique typically shows improved or equivalent performance over other existing state-of-the-art classification methods.