An optimal pairwise merge algorithm improves the quality and consistency of nonnegative matrix factorization

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Guo, Youdong, Holy, Timothy E.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866929563823505408
author Guo, Youdong
Holy, Timothy E.
author_facet Guo, Youdong
Holy, Timothy E.
contents Non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) is a key technique for feature extraction and widely used in source separation. However, existing algorithms may converge to poor local minima, or to one of several minima with similar objective value but differing feature parametrizations. Here we show that some of these weaknesses may be mitigated by performing NMF in a higher-dimensional feature space and then iteratively combining components with an analytically-solvable pairwise merge strategy. Experimental results demonstrate our method helps non-ideal NMF solutions escape to better local optima and achieve greater consistency of the solutions. Despite these extra steps, our approach exhibits similar computational performance to established methods by reducing the occurrence of "plateau phenomenon" near saddle points. Moreover, the results also illustrate that our method is compatible with different NMF algorithms. Thus, this can be recommended as a preferred approach for most applications of NMF.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_09013
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An optimal pairwise merge algorithm improves the quality and consistency of nonnegative matrix factorization
Guo, Youdong
Holy, Timothy E.
Machine Learning
Signal Processing
Non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) is a key technique for feature extraction and widely used in source separation. However, existing algorithms may converge to poor local minima, or to one of several minima with similar objective value but differing feature parametrizations. Here we show that some of these weaknesses may be mitigated by performing NMF in a higher-dimensional feature space and then iteratively combining components with an analytically-solvable pairwise merge strategy. Experimental results demonstrate our method helps non-ideal NMF solutions escape to better local optima and achieve greater consistency of the solutions. Despite these extra steps, our approach exhibits similar computational performance to established methods by reducing the occurrence of "plateau phenomenon" near saddle points. Moreover, the results also illustrate that our method is compatible with different NMF algorithms. Thus, this can be recommended as a preferred approach for most applications of NMF.
title An optimal pairwise merge algorithm improves the quality and consistency of nonnegative matrix factorization
topic Machine Learning
Signal Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.09013