A Simple Neural Network Pruning Algorithm with Application to Filter Synthesis

摘要

This paper describes an approach to synthesizing desired filters using a multilayer neural network (NN). In order to acquire the right function of the object filter, a simple method for reducing the structures of both the input and the hidden layers of the NN is proposed. In the proposed method, the units are removed from the NN on the basis of the influence of removing each unit on the error, and the NN is retrained to recover the damage of the removal. Each process is performed alternately, and then the structure is reduced. Experiments to synthesize a known filter were performed. By the analysis of the NN obtained by the proposed method, it has been shown that it acquires the right function of the object filter. By the experiment to synthesize the filter for solving real signal processing tasks, it has been shown that the NN obtained by the proposed method is superior to that obtained by the conventional method in terms of the filter performance and the computational cost.