Kohonen Demonstrator

Download here (19K) - Note: you will need MFC42.DLL to run this.

This program is a simple demonstration of a Kohonen self-organizing neural network. The program merely maps itself to a set of coordinates ranging from -0.5 to 0.5 on both the x and y-axis.

The program layout is very simple - the Run button will start the network. Note, this may take some time, so be patient! Note that phase is shown in the title bar. The two edit controls at the right are the Phase 1 (top) and Phase 2 (bottom) iterations. Alter these values to see how it affects the learning of the program.

During Phase 1, the learning coefficient, k, goes from 0.9 to 0.01, linearly decreasing with the iterations. The neighbourhood, N_x is set at half the diameter of the net, and also linearly decreases. During Phase 2, k decreases from 0.1 to 0.0, with N_x fixed at 1.

For a better explanation of Kohonen organizing networks (and a screenshot of this program!) see the Self-organizing Networks essay.