Evaluating a class of distance-mapping algorithms for data mining and clustering
Jason Tsong-Li Wang, Xiong Wang, King-Ip Lin, Dennis E. Shasha, Bruce A. Shapiro, Kaizhong Zhang · 1999
A distance-mapping algorithm takes a set of objects and a distance metric and then maps those objects to a Euclidean or pseudo-Euclidean space in such a way that the distances among objects are approximately preserved. Distancemapping algorithms are a useful tool for clustering and visualization in data intensive applications, because they replace expensive distance calculations by sum-of-square calculations. This can make clustering in large databases with expensive distance metrics practical. In this paper we present five distance-mapping algorithms and conduct experiments to compare their performance in data clustering applications. These include two algorithms called FastMap and MetricMap, and three hybrid heuristics that combine the two algorithms in different ways. Experimental results on both synthetic and RNA data show the superiority of the hybrid algorithms. The results imply that FastMap and MetricMap capture complementary information about distance metrics and therefore ca...