Nonlinear dimensionality reduction

High-dimensional data, meaning data that requires more than two or three dimensions to represent, can be difficult to interpret. One approach to simplification is to assume that the data of interest lie on an embedded non-linear manifold within the higher-dimensional space. If the manifold is of low enough dimension, the data can be visualised in the low-dimensional space.

Below is a summary of some of the important algorithms from the history of manifold learning and nonlinear dimensionality reduction (NLDR). Many of these non-linear dimensionality reduction methods are related to the linear methods listed below. Non-linear methods can be broadly classified into two groups: those that provide a mapping (either from the high-dimensional space to the low-dimensional embedding or vice versa), and those that just give a visualisation. In the context of machine learning, mapping methods may be viewed as a preliminary feature extraction step, after which pattern recognition algorithms are applied. Typically those that just give a visualisation are based on proximity data – that is, distance measurements.

Consider a dataset represented as a matrix (or a database table), such that each row represents a set of attributes (or features or dimensions) that describe a particular instance of something. If the number of attributes is large, then the space of unique possible rows is exponentially large. Thus, the larger the dimensionality, the more difficult it becomes to sample the space. This causes many problems. Algorithms that operate on high-dimensional data tend to have a very high time complexity. Many machine learning algorithms, for example, struggle with high-dimensional data. This has become known as the curse of dimensionality. Reducing data into fewer dimensions often makes analysis algorithms more efficient, and can help machine learning algorithms make more accurate predictions.

Humans often have difficulty comprehending data in many dimensions. Thus, reducing data to a small number of dimensions is useful for visualization purposes.

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