FuzzyCOPE 3 Frequently Asked Questions


Contents

What is FuzzyCOPE 3?

FuzzyCOPE 3 is a neural network toolkit intended for under and postgraduate teaching and research. It was developed within the Knowledge Engineering laboratory of the Department of Information Science at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Who is involved with FuzzyCOPE 3?

Several people have been involved with FuzzyCOPE 3. Firstly there is Professor Nikola Kasabov, who was the director of the project. Dr Robert Kozma supervised the project while Prof. Kasabov was overseas on sabbatical. Mike Watts wrote the engine and the API libraries, as well as the API documentation. Sue Pearson wrote the original GUI, which was then taken over and expanded by Brendon Woodford when Sue was moved onto other work. Melanie Middlemiss performed the user testing and wrote the user documentation and help files.

FuzzyCOPE 3 is based upon the CBIS code base, which was developed by Roy Ward and Mike Watts under the supervision of Dr Martin Purvis.

Where can I find FuzzyCOPE 3?

The official site for FuzzyCOPE 3 is at http://kel.otago.ac.nz/software/FuzzyCOPE3
This is mirrored at http://divcom.otago.ac.nz/com/infosci/kel/software/FuzzyCOPE3/, although this site is less reliable than the official site

What are the licensing issues with FuzzyCOPE 3?

FuzzyCOPE 3 is copyright the Department of Information Science at the University of Otago. Anyone who wishes to download, use, distribute or develop commercial applications with the software is free to do so. However, you may not alter the software, and you may not charge for distribution above reasonable media costs. As this software is free of charge, no warranty is made regarding it's suitability or reliability for any task.

The complete license may be found at http://kel.otago.ac.nz/software/FuzzyCOPE3/misc/disclaimer.htm

Do I have to register to use FuzzyCOPE 3?

No,registration is entirely voluntary. However, registering gives you the option of receiving e-mail notification of changes to the software and website. It also helps us with the continuing development of the software if we know what it is being used for.

What code is FuzzyCOPE 3 based on?

FuzzyCOPE 3 is based upon the CBIS code base. This was developed under Objective Two of the CBIS research project at the University of Otago. For more details about the CBIS code base, see the CBIS site at http://kel.otago.ac.nz/CBIS/

Who do I contact about FuzzyCOPE 3?

The most reliable method of contacting someone about FuzzyCOPE 3 is by e-mailing the project manager at fuzzycope@otago.ac.nz.
Anonymous comments about FuzzyCOPE 3 may be submitted using the online comments form at http://kel.otago.ac.nz/software/FuzzyCOPE3/comments/

What file formats does FuzzyCOPE use?

FuzzyCOPE 3 uses special file formats developed as part of the CBIS code base. If files are not in the correct format, then problems will be encountered loading the various objects. The files are stored as text and structured to allow users to read and edit them. Details of some of the file formats may be found at http://kel.otago.ac.nz/software/FuzzyCOPE3/docs/FileFormats/FileFormats.htm.

How do I convert my data to the right format?

There are two ways to convert your data to the correct format. The first is to use the flat2cbis command line tool. To use this tool, the data must be in a plain ASCII file, with no labels or other extraneous material. The tool takes as it's arguments the source, flat, file, the name of the file to save the converted data into, the number of data rows, the number of input columns and the number of output columns. Note that the FuzzyCOPE data file format does distinguish between input and output data. Also, the number of rows, inputs and outputs specified must be correct for the file being converted, or you will end up with garbage in the end result file.

The second way to convert the data is to manually insert the header and footer information, adjusting the Rows, Inputs and ExpectedOutputs tags to the correct values. This method is riskier, as a mistake in any of the tags can lead to FuzzyCOPE crashing when you try to load the file.

Where can I find examples of the file format?

Examples of the various file formats used by FuzzyCOPE 3 can be found online at http://kel.otago.ac.nz/software/FuzzyCOPE3/egs/examples.htm. These examples are also included in the full distribution under the "egs" directory.

What are the known issues with FuzzyCOPE 3?

Representation of decimal points in the interface

Both the GUI and engine of FuzzyCOPE 3 expect decimal points to be represented by full stops (.), rather than commas (,) as used in some countries. If your system is set up to use commas for decimal points, the GUI will return an error when entering parameters such as Learning Rate or Momentum.

Input data for Fuzzy Neural Networks

The Fuzzy Neural Network module in FuzzyCOPE 3 expects that the input and output data has been normalised to values between 0 and 1. Using data values outside of that range will cause unpredicatable results.

Compiler Optimisation and Delphi API Libraries

If an application using the Borland Delphi API libraries is compiled with compiler optimisation on then unpredictable behaviour may result. This is due (as far as we can tell) to the optimiser arbitrarily removing function arguments, which of course causes difficulties for the functions using them. Compiling the application with optimisation off will remedy this problem.

Will FuzzyCOPE be developed any further?

Yes, most definitely. While FuzzyCOPE 3 will not be further developed, design work on FuzzyCOPE 4 is in the advanced stages and some initial implementation has already begun. Version 4 will include an improved computational engine with many more features than in version 3, a redesigned user interface, and API libraries in languages other than Delphi. Most importantly, though, it will be available for the Linux operating system as well as the Windows platform. Version 4 is due for release at the end of March 2000.


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This page is maintained by Michael Watts (http://mike.watts.net.nz)
Last modified on: 27/07/99.