Structured neural networks for pattern recognition

This paper proposes a novel approach for the design of structures of neural networks for pattern recognition. The basic idea lies in subdividing the whole classification problem in smaller and simpler problems at different levels, each managed by appropriate components of a complex neural architecture. Three neural structures are presented and applied in a surveillance system aimed at monitoring a railway waiting room classifying potential dangerous situations. Each architecture is composed by nodes, which are actual multilayer perceptrons trained to discriminate between subsets of classes until a complete separation among the classes is achieved. This approach showed better performances with respect to a classical statistical classification procedures and to a single neural network