Abstraction in Artificial Intelligence and Complex Systems
By: by Lorenza Saitta, Jean-Daniel Zucker
Contributors: Zucker, Jean-Daniel; SpringerLink (Online service)
Publisher: Springer New York; Imprint: Springer
Published: 2013
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] /
Number of pages: 484
ISBN-13: 9781461470526
Subjects: Image Processing and Computer Vision; Information systems; Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery; Computer vision; Computer Appl. in Arts and Humanities; Artificial Intelligence (incl. Robotics); Data mining; Artificial intelligence; Computer science
Description: Abstraction is a fundamental mechanism underlying both human and artificial perception, representation of knowledge, reasoning and learning. This mechanism plays a crucial role in many disciplines, notably Computer Programming, Natural and Artificial Vision, Complex Systems, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Art, and Cognitive Sciences. This book first provides the reader with an overview of the notions of abstraction proposed in various disciplines by comparing both commonalities and differences.  After discussing the characterizing properties of abstraction, a formal model, the KRA model, is presented to capture them. This model makes the notion of abstraction easily applicable by means of the introduction of a set of abstraction operators and abstraction patterns, reusable across different domains and applications. It is the impact of abstraction in Artificial Intelligence, Complex Systems and Machine Learning which creates the core of the book.  A general framework, based on the KRA model, is presented, and its pragmatic power is illustrated with three case studies: Model-based diagnosis, Cartographic  Generalization, and learning Hierarchical Hidden Markov Models.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Abstraction in Different Disciplines; title: Abstraction in Artificial Intelligence; title: Definitions of Abstraction; title: Boundaries of Abstraction; title: The KRA Model; title: Abstraction Operators and Design Patterns; title: Properties of the KRA Model; title: Abstraction in Machine Learning; title: Simplicity, Complex Systems, and Abstraction; title: Case Studies and Applications; title: Discussion; title: Conclusion.