Feature selection based on cluster and variability analyses for ordinal multi-class classification problems

Feature selection is an essential problem for pattern classification systems. This paper studies how to provide systems with the most characterizing features for ordinal multi-class classification task. The integration of cluster analyses and variability analyses advances a novel feature selection scheme with efficiency. The Huang-index method using fuzzy c-means is employed to enhance cluster validity and optimizes a consistent number of clusters among the features. A new entropy-based feature evaluation method is formulated for the authentication of relevant features. Then, multivariate statistical analyses are utilized to solve the redundancy between relevant features. Experimental results show that our new feature selection scheme sifts successfully a compact subset of characterizing features for classification problems with multiple classes.