Method for operating an optimal weight pruning apparatus for designing artificial neural networks

摘要

A method and apparatus for designing a multilayer feed forward neural network that produces a design having a minimum number of connecting weights is based on a novel iterative procedure for inverting the full Hessian matrix of the neural network. The inversion of the full Hessian matrix results in a practical strategy for pruning weights of a trained neural network. The error caused by pruning is minimized by a correction that is applied to remaining (un-pruned) weights thus reducing the need for retraining. However, retraining may be applied to the network possibly leading to further the simplification of the network design.