NeuroCOLT

Neural Networks and Computational Learning Theory

 

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NeuroCOLT Technical Report NC-TR-96-010

On-line Prediction and Conversion Strategies

Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi
DSI
Università di Milano

Yoav Freund
AT&T Bell Laboratories

David P. Helmbold
University of California Santa Cruz

Manfred K.Warmuth
University of California Santa Cruz

Abstract
We study the problem of deterministically predicting boolean values by combining the boolean predictions of several experts. Previous on-line algorithms for this problem predict with the weighted majority of the experts' predictions. These algorithms give each expert an exponential weight $\beta^m$ where $\beta$ is a constant in $[0,1)$ and $m$ is the number of mistakes made by the expert in the past. We show that it is better to use sums of binomials as weights. In particular, we present a deterministic algorithm using binomial weights that has a better worst case mistake bound than the best deterministic algorithm using exponential weights. The binomial weights naturally arise from a version space argument. We also show how both exponential and binomial weighting schemes can be used to make prediction algorithms robust against noise.

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