Patent Document ID: 5490164
Application ID: 07868966
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. An apparatus for storing weight factors for connections between neurons in a multi-layer neural network which is supplied with a plurality of input signals, wherein information representing connection weight factors is stored which represents strengths of connections between neurons of a multi-layer neural network including an input layer, at least a single intermediate layer, and an output layer, each of the input layer, the intermediate layer, and the output layer being composed of at least a single neuron, comprising: i) a means for classifying each of said connections between said neurons of said multi-layer neural network, which classifies said connections between said neurons as having a high degree of connection or having a low degree of connection by comparing said connection weight factors with a single predetermined threshold value, and which classifies said connections between said neurons on the input side of each of said neurons as having a low degree of connection in cases where all of said connections on the output side of each of said neurons have been classified as having a low degree of connection, said means for classifying connections providing classifications accordingly, and ii) a storage means for storing information representing the connection weight factors of said connections between said neurons, which have been classified as having a high degree of connection, said storage means further storing said classifications in a table.