SOMs have proven to be a very powerful tool for data analysis. However, comparing multiple SOMs trained on the same data set using different parameters or initialisations is still a difficult task. In most cases it is performed only via visual inspection or by utilising one of a range of quality measures to compare vector quantisation or topology preservation characteristics of the maps. Yet, comparing SOMs systematically is both necessary as well as a powerful tool to further analyse data: necessary, because it may help to pick the most suitable SOM out of different training runs; a powerful tool because it allows analysing mapping stabilities across a range of parameter settings. In this paper we present an analytic approach to compare multiple SOMs trained on the same data set. Analysis of output space mapping, supported by a set of visualisations, reveals data co-locations and shifts on pairs of SOMs, considering both different neighbourhood sizes at source and target maps. A similar concept of mutual distances and relationships can be analysed at a cluster level. Finally, Comparisons aggregated automatically across several SOMs are strong indicators for strength and stability of mappings. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
CITATION STYLE
Mayer, R., Neumayer, R., Baum, D., & Rauber, A. (2009). Analytic comparison of self-organising maps. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) (Vol. 5629 LNCS, pp. 182–190). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02397-2_21
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