Aluisio I. R. Fontes

Classification System of Pathological Voices Using Correntropy

This paper proposes the use of a similarity measure based on information theory called correntropy for the automatic classification of pathological voices. By using correntropy, it is possible to obtain descriptors that aggregate distinct spectral characteristics for healthy and pathological voices. Experiments using computational simulation demonstrate that such descriptors are very efficient in the characterization of vocal dysfunctions, leading to a success rate of 97% in the classification. With this new architecture, the classification process of vocal pathologies becomes much more simple and efficient.

Performance evaluation of the correntropy coefficient in automatic modulation classification

Abstract Automatic modulation classification (AMC) techniques have applications in a variety of wireless communication scenarios, such as adaptive systems, cognitive radio, and surveillance systems. However, a common requirement to most of the AMC techniques proposed in the literature is the use of signal preprocessing modules, which can increase the computational cost and decrease the scalability of the AMC strategy. This work proposes the direct use of a similarity measure based on information theory for the automatic recognition of digital modulations, which is known as correntropy coefficient. The performance of correntropy in AMC applied to channels subject to additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is evaluated. Specifically, the influence of the kernel size on the classifier performance is analyzed, since it is the only free parameter in correntropy. Besides, a relationship between its respective value and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the channel is also proposed. Considering the investigated modulation techniques, numerical results obtained by simulation demonstrate that there are high accuracy rates in classification, even at low SNR values. By using correntropy, AMC task becomes simpler and more efficient.

Cyclostationary correntropy: Definition and applications

Abstract Information extraction is a frequent and relevant problem in digital signal processing. In the past few years, different methods have been utilized for the parameterization of signals and the achievement of efficient descriptors. When the signals possess statistical cyclostationary properties, the Cyclic Autocorrelation Function (CAF) and the Spectral Cyclic Density (SCD) can be used to extract second-order cyclostationary information. However,second-order statistics tightly depends on the assumption of gaussianity, as the cyclostationary analysis in this case should comprise higher-order statistical information. This paper proposes a new mathematical formulation for the higher-order cyclostationary analysis based on the correntropy function. The cyclostationary analysis is revisited focusing on the information theory, while the Cyclic Correntropy Function (CCF) and Cyclic Correntropy Spectral Density (CCSD) are also presented. The CCF has different properties compared with CAF that can be very useful in non-gaussian signal processing, especially in the impulsive noise environment which implies in the expansion of the class of problems addressed by the second-order cyclostationary analysis. In particular, we prove that the CCF contains information regarding second- and higher-order cyclostationary moments, being a generalization of the CAF. The performance of the aforementioned functions in the extraction of higher-order cyclostationary characteristics is analyzed in a wireless communication system in which non-gaussian noise is present. The results demonstrate the advantages of the proposed method over the second-order cyclostationary.

Fuzzy Wavelet Neural Network Using a Correntropy Criterion for Nonlinear System Identification

Recent researches have demonstrated that the Fuzzy Wavelet Neural Networks (FWNNs) are an efficient tool to identify nonlinear systems. In these structures, features related to fuzzy logic, wavelet functions, and neural networks are combined in an architecture similar to the Adaptive Neurofuzzy Inference Systems (ANFIS). In practical applications, the experimental data set used in the identification task often contains unknown noise and outliers, which decrease the FWNN model reliability. In order to reduce the negative effects of these erroneous measurements, this work proposes the direct use of a similarity measure based on information theory in the FWNN learning procedure. The Mean Squared Error (MSE) cost function is replaced by the Maximum Correntropy Criterion (MCC) in the traditional error backpropagation (BP) algorithm. The input-output maps of a real nonlinear system studied in this work are identified from an experimental data set corrupted by different outliers rates and additive white Gaussian noise. The results demonstrate the advantages of the proposed cost function using the MCC as compared to the MSE. This work also investigates the influence of the kernel size on the performance of the MCC in the BP algorithm, since it is the only free parameter of correntropy.

Complex Correntropy: Probabilistic Interpretation and Application to Complex-Valued Data

Recent studies have demonstrated that correntropy is an efficient tool for analyzing higher order statistical moments in non-Gaussian noise environments. Although correntropy has been used with complex data, no theoretical study was pursued to elucidate its properties, nor how to best use it for optimization. By using a probabilistic interpretation, this work presents a novel similarity measure between two complex random variables, which is defined as complex correntropy. A new recursive solution for the maximum complex correntropy criterion is introduced based on a fixed-point solution. This technique is applied to a system identification, and the results demonstrate prominent advantages when compared against three other algorithms: the complex least mean square, complex recursive least squares, and least absolute deviation. By the aforementioned probabilistic interpretation, correntropy can now be applied to solve several problems involving complex data in a more straightforward way.

Complex Correntropy Function: properties, and application to a channel equalization problem

The use of correntropy as a similarity measure has been increasing in different scenarios due to the well-known ability to extract high-order statistic information from data. Recently, a new similarity measure between complex random variables was defined and called complex correntropy. Based on a Gaussian kernel, it extends the benefits of correntropy to complex-valued data. However, its properties have not yet been formalized. This paper studies the properties of this new similarity measure and extends this definition to positive-definite kernels. Complex correntropy is applied to a channel equalization problem as good results are achieved when compared with other algorithms such as the complex least mean square (CLMS), complex recursive least squares (CRLS), and least absolute deviation (LAD).

Corrigendum to “Cyclostationary Correntropy: Definition and applications” [Expert Systems with Applications 69 (2017) 110–117]

Corrigendum to “Cyclostationary Correntropy: definition and applications” [Expert Systems with Applications 69 (2016) 110–117] Aluisio I.R. Fontes a , ∗, Joilson B.A. Rego b , Allan de M. Martins c , Luiz F.Q. Silveira d , Q1 J.C. Principe e a Department of Information, Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Norte, Pau dos Ferros, RN, Brazil b School of Science and Technology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil c Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil d Department of Computer Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, 59078-970 Natal, RN, Brazil e Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

Performance evaluation of the maximum correntropy criterion in identification systems

The System identification explores ways to obtain mathematical models of an unknown system. However, as a result from the intrinsic random nature of system or from the environment noise, it is very hard to find a perfect mathematical representation of a real system. This paper aims to evaluate the Maximum Correntropy Criterion (MCC) performance using the gradient descent and the Fixed-Point. Both methods were compared in different noise scenarios and their behavior with different system models. The importance of the free parameters was also studied on both methods. The results show that the fixed-point has a better performance and are less noise sensitive.

On the parallel efficiency and scalability of the correntropy coefficient for image analysis

BackgroundSimilarity measures have application in many scenarios of digital image processing. The correntropy is a robust and relatively new similarity measure that recently has been employed in various engineering applications. Despite other competitive characteristics, its computational cost is relatively high and may impose hard-to-cope time restrictions for high-dimensional applications, including image analysis and computer vision.MethodsWe propose a parallelization strategy for calculating the correntropy on multi-core architectures that may turn the use of this metric viable in such applications. We provide an analysis of its parallel efficiency and scalability.ResultsThe simulation results were obtained on a shared memory system with 24 processing cores for input images of different dimensions. We performed simulations of various scenarios with images of different sizes. The aim was to analyze the parallel and serial fraction of the computation of the correntropy coefficient and the influence of these fractions in its speedup and efficiency.ConclusionsThe results indicate that correntropy has a large potential as a metric for image analysis in the multi-core era due to its high parallel efficiency and scalability.Similarity measures have application in many scenarios of digital image processing. The correntropy is a robust and relatively new similarity measure that recently has been employed in various engineering applications. Despite other competitive characteristics, its computational cost is relatively high and may impose hard-to-cope time restrictions for high-dimensional applications, including image analysis and computer vision. We propose a parallelization strategy for calculating the correntropy on multi-core architectures that may turn the use of this metric viable in such applications. We provide an analysis of its parallel efficiency and scalability. The simulation results were obtained on a shared memory system with 24 processing cores for input images of different dimensions. We performed simulations of various scenarios with images of different sizes. The aim was to analyze the parallel and serial fraction of the computation of the correntropy coefficient and the influence of these fractions in its speedup and efficiency. The results indicate that correntropy has a large potential as a metric for image analysis in the multi-core era due to its high parallel efficiency and scalability.