Univariate Channel Fusion for Multivariate Time Series Classification

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Moro, Fernando, Souza, Vinicius M. A.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Moro, Fernando
Souza, Vinicius M. A.
author_facet Moro, Fernando
Souza, Vinicius M. A.
contents Multivariate time series classification (MTSC) plays a crucial role in various domains, including biomedical signal analysis and motion monitoring. However, existing approaches, particularly deep learning models, often require high computational resources, making them unsuitable for real-time applications or deployment on low-cost hardware, such as IoT devices and wearable systems. In this paper, we propose the Univariate Channel Fusion (UCF) method to deal with MTSC efficiently. UCF transforms multivariate time series into a univariate representation through simple channel fusion strategies such as the mean, median, or dynamic time warping barycenter. This transformation enables the use of any classifier originally designed for univariate time series, providing a flexible and computationally lightweight alternative to complex models. We evaluate UCF in five case studies covering diverse application domains, including chemical monitoring, brain-computer interfaces, and human activity analysis. The results demonstrate that UCF often outperforms baseline methods and state-of-the-art algorithms tailored for MTSC, while achieving substantial gains in computational efficiency, being particularly effective in problems with high inter-channel correlation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_16119
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Univariate Channel Fusion for Multivariate Time Series Classification
Moro, Fernando
Souza, Vinicius M. A.
Machine Learning
Multivariate time series classification (MTSC) plays a crucial role in various domains, including biomedical signal analysis and motion monitoring. However, existing approaches, particularly deep learning models, often require high computational resources, making them unsuitable for real-time applications or deployment on low-cost hardware, such as IoT devices and wearable systems. In this paper, we propose the Univariate Channel Fusion (UCF) method to deal with MTSC efficiently. UCF transforms multivariate time series into a univariate representation through simple channel fusion strategies such as the mean, median, or dynamic time warping barycenter. This transformation enables the use of any classifier originally designed for univariate time series, providing a flexible and computationally lightweight alternative to complex models. We evaluate UCF in five case studies covering diverse application domains, including chemical monitoring, brain-computer interfaces, and human activity analysis. The results demonstrate that UCF often outperforms baseline methods and state-of-the-art algorithms tailored for MTSC, while achieving substantial gains in computational efficiency, being particularly effective in problems with high inter-channel correlation.
title Univariate Channel Fusion for Multivariate Time Series Classification
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.16119