New cluster validity function for determining cluster number
You-Qing Wu · Computer Engineering and Applications Journal · 2010
Cluster validity index is used to evaluate the validity of clustering.The clustering result will tend to be more logical on the condition that the initial clustering number is accurately ascertained.According to the basic theory of fuzzy indetermination and the properties of clustering,a new cluster validity function is proposed to identify the optimal cluster number based on the newly introduced index D(iU;c) that can measure the clustering compactness.Both the geometry structure of dataset and the membership degree are taken into account in the validity function,which based on the properties of clustering compactness and separation.The experimental results indicate that the new validity function can find out the only cluster number if the dataset has the obvious cluster trend and it is also non-sensitive to the weighting coefficient m.