Age of Abalones using Physical
Characteristics: A Classification
Problem
Hiran Mayukh
ECE 539
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What is an Abalone?
• Sea snails found worldwide
– Also called sea-ears and ear-shells
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What is this project about?
• Finding age of an
abalone
– Cumbersome
laboratory process
– But physical
characteristics easily
measurable
• Use physical
characteristics to
predict age using a
learning algorithm
3
What is this project about?
• Recast as a
classification problem
– Find age range using
physical characteristics
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The Dataset
• University of California,
Irvine’s Machine Learning
Repository
• 8 physical characteristics
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Sex
Length
Diameter
Height
Whole weight
Shucked weight
Viscera weight
Shell weight
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The Dataset
• Preprocessing
– Convert age to
age range (class
label)
– Split into training
and testing data
samples
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Experiments
1. Maximize
classification accuracy
– k-means
– SOM learning
algorithm, fine-tuned
by LVQ classification
– Hierarchical clustering
2. Find most significant
features
– Elide feature and find
classification accuracy
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Thank You!
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References
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abalone
[2] http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/Abalone
[3] http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/machine-learningdatabases/abalone/abalone.names
Sources of pictures:
[Slide 2] http://animals.howstuffworks.com/marine-life/abalone-info.htm
[Slide 3] http://californialegacy.org/radio_anthology/scripts/sterling.html
[Slide 4] http://www.islandgourds.com/page6.html
[Slide 5] http://www.malibudivers.com/index.php?
option=content&task=view&id=125
[Slide 6] http://www.shells-of-aquarius.com/abalone-shells.html
[Slide 7] http://naplesseashellcompany.com/red_abalone.html
[Slide 8] http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/mystery-virus-wreakshavoc/2007/02/24/1171734074109.html
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