Palmprints: a Cooperative Co-evolutionary Algorithm for Clustering Hand Images

The main objective of Project PalmPrints is to develop and demonstrate a special co-evolutionary genetic algorithm (GA) that optimizes (a clustering fitness function) with respect to three quantities, (a) the dimensions of the clustering space; (b) the number of clusters; and (c) and the locations of the various clusters. This genetic algorithm is applied to the specific practical problem of hand image clustering, with success. In addition to the above, this research effort makes the following contributions: (a) a CD database of (raw and processed) right-hand images; (b) a number of novel features designed specifically for hand image classification; (c) an extended fitness function, which is particularly suited to a dynamic (i.e. dimensionality varying) clustering space. Despite the complexity of the multi-optimizational task, the results of this study are clear. The GA succeeded in achieving a maximum fitness value of 99.1%; while reducing the number of dimensions (features) of the space by more than half (from 84 to 41).