{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,3]],"date-time":"2026-05-03T03:17:06Z","timestamp":1777778226902,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":56,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,17]],"date-time":"2019-12-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1576540800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Information Visualization"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,4]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>The concept of involving users in the loop of analytic workflows refers to the ability to replace heuristics with user input in machine learning and data mining tasks. For supervised tasks, user engagement generally occurs via the manipulation of training data. But for unsupervised tasks, user involvement is limited to changes in the algorithm parametrization or the input data representation, also known as features. Typically, different types of features can be extracted from raw data, and the careful selection of the extraction strategy allows users to have more control over unsupervised tasks. Nevertheless, since there is no perfect feature extractor, the combination of multiple sets of features has been explored through a process called feature fusion. Feature fusion can be readily performed when the machine learning or data mining algorithms have a cost function, such as accuracy for classification tasks. However, when such a function does not exist, user support needs to be provided, otherwise the process is impractical. In this article, we present a novel feature fusion approach that employs data samples and visualization to allow users to not only effortlessly control the combination of different feature sets but also understand the attained results. The effectiveness of our approach is confirmed by a comprehensive set of qualitative and quantitative experiments, opening up different possibilities for user-guided analytical scenarios. The ability of our approach to provide real-time feedback for feature fusion is exploited in the context of unsupervised clustering techniques, where users can perform an exploratory process to discover the best combination of features that reflects their individual perceptions about similarity.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/1473871619891062","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,17]],"date-time":"2019-12-17T09:01:00Z","timestamp":1576573260000},"page":"163-179","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Visual feature fusion and its application to support unsupervised clustering tasks"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"19","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0933-1087","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gladys M","family":"Hilasaca","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of S\u00e3o Paulo, S\u00e3o Carlos, Brazil"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2316-760X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fernando V","family":"Paulovich","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-1473871619891062","unstructured":"Bostrom H, Andler SF, Brohede M, et al. On the definition of information fusion as a field of research. Technical report, University of Sk\u00f6vde, Sk\u00f6vde, 2007."},{"key":"bibr2-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TNN.2005.845141"},{"key":"bibr3-1473871619891062","volume-title":"Introduction to data mining","author":"Tan PN","year":"2005","edition":"1"},{"key":"bibr4-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TVCG.2018.2846735"},{"key":"bibr5-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TVCG.2016.2598495"},{"key":"bibr6-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4103\/0256-4602.64604"},{"key":"bibr7-1473871619891062","first-page":"235","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 2017 international conference on recent advances in electronics and communication technology (ICRAECT)","author":"Sudha D"},{"key":"bibr8-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-15530-2"},{"key":"bibr9-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1117\/1.JEI.25.1.013009"},{"key":"bibr10-1473871619891062","first-page":"32","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE 12th international conference on computer vision","author":"Wang X"},{"key":"bibr11-1473871619891062","first-page":"469","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 9th European conference on computer vision (Euro\u201915)","author":"Ahonen T"},{"key":"bibr12-1473871619891062","first-page":"886","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR\u201905)","author":"Dalal N"},{"key":"bibr13-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3844\/jcssp.2012.1321.1328"},{"key":"bibr14-1473871619891062","first-page":"1150","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 7th IEEE international conference on computer vision","author":"Lowe DG"},{"key":"bibr15-1473871619891062","volume-title":"Digital image processing using MATLAB","author":"Gonzalez RC","year":"2003"},{"key":"bibr16-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2018.2815149"},{"key":"bibr17-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TMM.2008.2001357"},{"key":"bibr18-1473871619891062","first-page":"437","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE workshop on automatic speech recognition & understanding","author":"Loni B"},{"key":"bibr19-1473871619891062","first-page":"243","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 14th international conference on text, speech and dialogue (TSD\u2019 11), Pilsen","author":"Loni B"},{"key":"bibr20-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neucom.2016.08.059"},{"key":"bibr21-1473871619891062","first-page":"2034","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 2017 3rd IEEE international conference on computer and communications (ICCC)","author":"You T"},{"key":"bibr22-1473871619891062","first-page":"1","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 2017 10th international congress on image and signal processing, biomedical engineering and informatics (CISP-BMEI)","author":"Yu W"},{"key":"bibr23-1473871619891062","first-page":"1","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 2013 14th international workshop on image analysis for multimedia interactive services (WIAMIS)","author":"Degani A"},{"key":"bibr24-1473871619891062","first-page":"719","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 2010 international conference on machine learning and cybernetics","volume":"2","author":"Huang ZC"},{"key":"bibr25-1473871619891062","first-page":"127","volume-title":"Proceedings of the international conference on intelligent sensing and information processing","author":"Vadivel A"},{"key":"bibr26-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TIP.2017.2736343"},{"key":"bibr27-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.patcog.2015.11.006"},{"key":"bibr28-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/2379776.2379786"},{"key":"bibr29-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/3-540-45014-9_1"},{"key":"bibr30-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/VDS.2017.8573444"},{"key":"bibr31-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.inffus.2013.04.006"},{"key":"bibr32-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ins.2010.11.023"},{"key":"bibr33-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/91.413225"},{"key":"bibr34-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"115","DOI":"10.1109\/IJCNN.2001.939002","volume-title":"Proceedings of the international joint conference on neural networks (IJCNN\u201901) (Cat. No.01CH37222)","volume":"1","author":"Wilson DR"},{"key":"bibr35-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/568271.223812"},{"key":"bibr36-1473871619891062","first-page":"777","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 17th international conference on neural information processing systems (NIPS\u201904)","author":"Levina E"},{"key":"bibr37-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TVCG.2011.220"},{"key":"bibr38-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neucom.2014.07.072"},{"key":"bibr39-1473871619891062","unstructured":"Coates A, Ng AY, Lee H. An analysis of single-layer networks in unsupervised feature learning. In: Proceedings of the fourteenth international conference on artificial intelligence and statistics (AISTATS 2011), Fort Lauderdale, FL, 11\u201313 April 2011, pp. 215\u2013223, http:\/\/proceedings.mlr.press\/v15\/coates11a\/coates11a.pdf"},{"key":"bibr40-1473871619891062","first-page":"951","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern recognition","author":"Lampert C"},{"key":"bibr41-1473871619891062","first-page":"192","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern recognition (CVPR \u201914)","author":"Yu A"},{"key":"bibr42-1473871619891062","unstructured":"Krizhevsky A. Learning multiple layers of features from tiny images. Technical report, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, 2009."},{"key":"bibr43-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Thomas C, Kovashka A. Seeing behind the camera: identifying the authorship of a photograph. In: Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern recognition (CVPR), 2016, pp. 3494\u20133502, http:\/\/openaccess.thecvf.com\/content_cvpr_2016\/papers\/Thomas_Seeing_Behind_the_CVPR_2016_paper.pdf","DOI":"10.1109\/CVPR.2016.380"},{"key":"bibr44-1473871619891062","first-page":"273","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 10th international multimedia modelling conference (MMM \u201904)","author":"Chen L"},{"key":"bibr45-1473871619891062","first-page":"675","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 22nd ACM international conference on multimedia (MM \u201914)","author":"Jia Y"},{"key":"bibr46-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TVCG.2006.161"},{"key":"bibr47-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/34.1000236"},{"key":"bibr48-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TVCG.2006.76"},{"key":"bibr49-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1057\/palgrave.ivs.9500054"},{"key":"bibr50-1473871619891062","first-page":"1409","volume":"28","author":"Sokal RR","year":"1958","journal-title":"U Kans Sci Bull"},{"key":"bibr51-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/BF01890115"},{"key":"bibr52-1473871619891062","first-page":"75","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 7th Pacific-Asia conference on knowledge discovery and data mining (PAKDD \u201903)","author":"Sander J"},{"key":"bibr53-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TVCG.2017.2745085"},{"key":"bibr54-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/s12859-017-1813-7"},{"key":"bibr55-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neucom.2014.09.062"},{"key":"bibr56-1473871619891062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s00371-018-1483-0"}],"container-title":["Information Visualization"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/1473871619891062","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1177\/1473871619891062","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/1473871619891062","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T19:18:59Z","timestamp":1777490339000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/1473871619891062"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,17]]},"references-count":56,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,4]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1177\/1473871619891062"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/1473871619891062","relation":{},"ISSN":["1473-8716","1473-8724"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1473-8716","type":"print"},{"value":"1473-8724","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,17]]}}}