| Inspired by the structure of the human brain, artificial neural networks have been widely applied to fields such as pattern recognition, optimization, coding, control, etc., because of their ability to solve cumbersome or intractable problems by learning directly from data. An artificial neural network usually consists of a large number of simple processing units, i.e., neurons, via mutual interconnection. It learns to solve problems by adequately adjusting the strength of the interconnections according to input data. Moreover, the neural network adapts easily to new environments by learning, and it can deal with information that is noisy, inconsistent, vague, or probabilistic. These features have motivated extensive research and developments in artificial neural networks. This volume is probably the first rather diversely comprehensive treatment devoted to the broad areas of algorithms and architectures for the realization of neural network systems. Techniques and diverse methods in numerous areas of this broad subject are presented. In addition, various major neural network structures for achieving effective systems are presented and illustrated by examples in all cases. Numerous other techniques and subjects related to this broadly significant area are treated. |