Split-and-merge techniques have been demonstrated to be effective in overtaking the convergence problems in classical EM. In this paper we follow a split-and-merge approach and we propose a new EM algorithm that makes use of a on-line variable number of mixture Gaussians components. We introduce a measure of the similarities to decide when to merge components. A set of adaptive thresholds keeps...

Clustering is a division of data into groups of similar objects. Each group, called a cluster, consists of objects that are similar between themselves and dissimilar compared to objects of other groups. This paper is intended to study and compare different data clustering algorithms. The algorithms under investigation are: k-means algorithm, hierarchical clustering algorithm, self-organizing ma...

Time-Delay-Estimation (TDE) has been a topic of interest in many applications in the past few decades. The emphasis of this work is on the application of model-based estimation (MBE) for TDE of ultrasonic signals used in ultrasonic thickness gaging. Ultrasonic thickness gaging is based on precise measurement of the time difference between successive echoes which reflect back from the back wall ...

Product customization has been recognized as an effective means to implement mass customization. This paper focuses on the customizability issue of design, that is, to evaluate the cost effectiveness of a design to be customized in order to meet individual customer needs. Three aspects of customizability are identified, namely, (1) design customizability: the intrinsic nature of product by desi...