A unified perspective and new results on RHT computing, mixture based learning, and multi-learner based problem solving

On one hand, multiple object detection approaches of Hough transform (HT) type and randomized HT type have been extended into an evidence accumulation featured general framework for problem solving, with five key mechanisms elaborated and several extensions of HT and RHT presented. On the other hand, another framework is proposed to integrate typical multi-learner based approaches for problem solving, particularly on Gaussian mixture based data clustering and local subspace learning, multi-sets mixture based object detection and motion estimation, and multi-agent coordinated problem solving. Typical learning algorithms, especially those that base on rival penalized competitive learning (RPCL) and Bayesian Ying–Yang (BYY) learning, are summarized from a unified perspective with new extensions. Furthermore, the two different frameworks are not only examined with one viewed crossly from a perspective of the other, with new insights and extensions, but also further unified into a general problem solving paradigm that consists of five basic mechanisms in terms of acquisition, allocation, amalgamation, admission, and affirmation, or shortly A5 paradigm. 2007 Pattern Recognition Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.