Public domain LVQ-programs released

[Kari Torkkola]

************************************************************************
*                                                                      *
*                              LVQ_PAK                                 *
*                                                                      *
*                                The                                   *
*                                                                      *
*                   Learning  Vector  Quantization                     *
*                                                                      *
*                          Program  Package                            *
*                                                                      *
*                    Version 1.0 (December, 1991)                      *
*                                                                      *
*                          Prepared by the                             *
*                    LVQ Programming Team of the                       *
*                 Helsinki University of Technology                    *
*           Laboratory of Computer and Information Science             *
*                Rakentajanaukio 2 C, SF-02150 Espoo                   *
*                              FINLAND                                 *
*                                                                      *
*                         Copyright (c) 1991                           *
*                                                                      *
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Public-domain programs for Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) 
algorithms are available via anonymous FTP on the Internet. 

"What is LVQ?", you may ask --- See the following reference, then: 
Teuvo Kohonen. The self-organizing map. Proceedings of the IEEE, 
78(9):1464-1480, 1990.

In short, LVQ is a group of methods applicable to statistical 
pattern recognition, in which the classes are described by a 
relatively small number of codebook vectors, properly placed 
within each class zone such that the decision borders are 
approximated by the nearest-neighbor rule. Unlike in normal 
k-nearest-neighbor (k-nn) classification, the original samples 
are not used as codebook vectors, but they tune the latter. 
LVQ is concerned with the optimal placement of these codebook 
vectors into class zones.

This package contains all the programs necessary for the correct
application of certain LVQ algorithms in an arbitrary statistical 
classification or pattern recognition task. To this package two 
particular options for the algorithms, the LVQ1 and the LVQ2.1, 
have been selected.  

This is the very first release of the package, and updates will be 
available as soon as bugs are found and fixed. This code is distributed 
without charge on an "as is" basis. There is no warranty of any kind 
by the authors or by Helsinki University of Technology.

In the implementation of the LVQ programs we have tried to use as
simple code as possible. Therefore the programs are supposed to
compile in various machines without any specific modifications made on
the code. All programs have been written in ANSI C. The programs are 
available in two archive formats, one for the UNIX-environment, the
other for MS-DOS. Both archives contain exactly the same files. 

These files can be accessed via FTP as follows:

1. Create an FTP connection from wherever you are to machine
   "cochlea.hut.fi". The internet address of this machine is 
   130.233.168.48, for those who need it.

2. Log in as user "anonymous" with your own e-mail address as password.  

3. Change remote directory to "/pub/lvq_pak". 

4. At this point FTP should be able to get a listing of files in this
   directory with DIR and fetch the ones you want with GET. (The exact 
   FTP commands you use depend on your local FTP program.) Remember 
   to use the binary transfer mode for compressed files.

The lvq_pak program package includes the following files:

  - Documentation:
      README             short description of the package 
                         and installation instructions
      document.ps        documentation in (c) PostScript format
      document.ps.Z      same as above but compressed
      document.txt       documentation in ASCII format

  - Source file archives (which contain the documentation, too):
      lvq_p1r0.exe       Self-extracting MS-DOS archive file
      lvq_pak-1.0.tar    UNIX tape archive file
      lvq_pak-1.0.tar.Z  same as above but compressed


An example of FTP access is given below

unix> ftp cochlea.hut.fi (or 130.233.168.48)
Name: anonymous
Password: <your email address>
ftp> cd /pub/lvq_pak
ftp> binary
ftp> get lvq_pak-1.0.tar.Z
ftp> quit
unix> uncompress lvq_pak-1.0.tar.Z
unix> tar xvfo lvq_pak-1.0.tar

See file README for further installation instructions.

All comments concerning this package shoud be
addressed to lvq at cochlea.hut.fi.

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