Messages from Usenet group comp.lang.idl-pvwave, compiled by Paulo Penteado
Just casting a line to see if anyone could direct me to information (or pub domain software!) regarding classification of 1D vectors (i.e. spectra, chromatograms) into clusters. In my case, I cannot know ahead of time what the prototype example of each category will be, nor the exact number of categories, but the data being categorized is pretty simple: 1D vectors with ~l50 elements/pixels which represent preprocessed, time-sampled intensity values from a DNA sequencer. The plot looks like 3 to 10 distinct peaks with a nice background level near zero. The features here are also relatively straightforward: number of peaks, their locations and intensities, etc. I am told that cross_correlation is of limited value here, due to the fact that one pattern can look just like another, only offset by some unknown distance. I am doing Web and bibliography searches on clustering algorithms, with limited success. I'm afraid I need something a bit below the level of the average thesis ;) Has anyone done any of this before or have a good pointer they could offer? A favorite textbook? A web page? much thanks, as always, / Russ Welti /-\ (c-g) University of Washington \-/ Molecular Biotechnology / PO Box 352145 /-\ Seattle, WA 98195 (a-t) rwelti@u.washington.edu \-/