Black-Box Classifier Interpretation Using Decision Tree and Fuzzy Logic-Based Classifier Implementation

Abstract

Black-box classifiers, such as artificial neural network and support vector machine, are a popular classifier because of its remarkable performance. They are applied in various fields such as inductive inferences, classifications, or regressions. However, by its characteristics, they cannot provide appropriate explanations how the classification results are derived. Therefore, there are plenty of actively discussed researches about interpreting trained black-box classifiers. In this paper, we propose a method to make a fuzzy logic-based classifier using extracted rules from the artificial neural network and support vector machine in order to interpret internal structures. As an object of classification, an anomalous propagation echo is selected which occurs frequently in radar data and becomes the problem in a precipitation estimation process. After applying a clustering method, learning dataset is generated from clusters. Using the learning dataset, artificial neural network and support vector machine are implemented. After that, decision trees for each classifier are generated. And they are used to implement simplified fuzzy logic-based classifiers by rule extraction and input selection. Finally, we can verify and compare performances. With actual occurrence cased of the anomalous propagation echo, we can determine the inner structures of the black-box classifiers. cc This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.