Patent ID: 7293002

Claim:
A self-organizing apparatus, comprising: a plurality of artificial neurons arranged in multiple layers; a plurality of initial interconnections interconnecting the plurality of artificial neurons to form an initial configuration of a self-organizing learning array in which less than total interconnection is undertaken between adjacent layers; one or more learning array input nodes, each learning array input node connected to at least one artificial neuron; and the plurality of artificial neurons including a first self-organizing artificial neuron comprising: an entropy-based evaluator determining entropy of an input data space associated with the first self-organizing artificial neuron, wherein at least one of i) selection of initial interconnections to retain as neuron input connections to the first self-organizing artificial neuron and ii) selection of a transformation function to be applied by the first self-organizing artificial neuron is based at least in part on the determined entropy: wherein the plurality of artificial neurons includes one or more self-organizing artificial neurons each self-organizing artificial neuron independently determines the initial interconnections associated therewith to retain as neuron input connections and the initial interconnections associated therewith to release in response to training data being applied to the one or more learning array input nodes, the retained interconnections forming a trained configuration of the self-organizing learning array; wherein the first self-organizing artificial neuron determines the entropy of the input data space in response to training data being applied to the one or more learning array input nodes.