Extracting reducible knowledge from ANN with JBOS and FCANN approaches

Due to its ability to handle nonlinear problems, artificial neural networks are applied in several areas of science. However, the human elements are unable to assimilate the knowledge kept in those networks, since such knowledge is implicitly represented by their connections and the respective numerical weights. In recent formal concept analysis, through the FCANN method, it has demonstrated a powerful methodology for extracting knowledge from neural networks. However, depending on the settings used or the number of the neural network variables, the number of formal concepts and consequently of rules extracted from the network can make the process of knowledge and learning extraction impossible. Thus, this paper addresses the application of the JBOS approach to extracted reduced knowledge from the formal contexts extracted by FCANN from the neural network. Thus, providing a small number of formal concepts and rules for the final user, without losing the ability to understand the process learned by the network.

► The FCANN and JBOS approaches are used to extract knowledge from neural networks.
► Applying the JBOS approach to extract reduced knowledge.
► The reductions resulted in small number of formal concepts and rules for the final user.