arXiv subjects

J. Lember

Publications and source records attributed to J. Lember.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2009

On approximation of smoothing probabilities for hidden Markov models

We consider the smoothing probabilities of hidden Markov model (HMM). We show that under fairly general conditions for HMM, the exponential forgetting still holds, and the smoothing probabilities can be well approximated with the ones of double sided HMM. This makes it possible to use ergodic theorems. As an applications we consider the pointwise maximum a posteriori segmentation, and show that the corresponding risks converge.

stat.ML↗

arXiv2009

Infinite Viterbi alignments in the two state hidden Markov models

Since the early days of digital communication, Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) have now been routinely used in speech recognition, processing of natural languages, images, and in bioinformatics. An HMM $(X_i,Y_i)_{i\ge 1}$ assumes observations $X_1,X_2,...$ to be conditionally independent given an "explanotary" Markov process $Y_1,Y_2,...$, which itself is not observed; moreover, the conditional distribution of $X_i$ depends solely on $Y_i$. Central to the theory and applications of HMM is the Viterbi algorithm to find {\em a maximum a posteriori} estimate $q_{1:n}=(q_1,q_2,...,q_n)$ of $Y_{1:n}$ given the observed data $x_{1:n}$. Maximum {\em a posteriori} paths are also called Viterbi paths or alignments. Recently, attempts have been made to study the behavior of Viterbi alignments of HMMs with two hidden states when $n$ tends to infinity. It has indeed been shown that in some special cases a well-defined limiting Viterbi alignment exists. While innovative, these attempts have relied on rather strong assumptions. This work proves the existence of infinite Viterbi alignments for virtually any HMM with two hidden states.

math.ST↗

arXiv2008

A constructive proof of the existence of Viterbi processes

Since the early days of digital communication, hidden Markov models (HMMs) have now been also routinely used in speech recognition, processing of natural languages, images, and in bioinformatics. In an HMM $(X_i,Y_i)_{i\ge 1}$, observations $X_1,X_2,...$ are assumed to be conditionally independent given an ``explanatory'' Markov process $Y_1,Y_2,...$, which itself is not observed; moreover, the conditional distribution of $X_i$ depends solely on $Y_i$. Central to the theory and applications of HMM is the Viterbi algorithm to find {\em a maximum a posteriori} (MAP) estimate $q_{1:n}=(q_1,q_2,...,q_n)$ of $Y_{1:n}$ given observed data $x_{1:n}$. Maximum {\em a posteriori} paths are also known as Viterbi paths or alignments. Recently, attempts have been made to study the behavior of Viterbi alignments when $n\to \infty$. Thus, it has been shown that in some special cases a well-defined limiting Viterbi alignment exists. While innovative, these attempts have relied on rather strong assumptions and involved proofs which are existential. This work proves the existence of infinite Viterbi alignments in a more constructive manner and for a very general class of HMMs.

math.ST↗

arXiv2007

Adjusted Viterbi training for hidden Markov models

To estimate the emission parameters in hidden Markov models one commonly uses the EM algorithm or its variation. Our primary motivation, however, is the Philips speech recognition system wherein the EM algorithm is replaced by the Viterbi training algorithm. Viterbi training is faster and computationally less involved than EM, but it is also biased and need not even be consistent. We propose an alternative to the Viterbi training -- adjusted Viterbi training -- that has the same order of computational complexity as Viterbi training but gives more accurate estimators. Elsewhere, we studied the adjusted Viterbi training for a special case of mixtures, supporting the theory by simulations. This paper proves the adjusted Viterbi training to be also possible for more general hidden Markov models.

math.ST↗

arXiv2004

Adjusted Viterbi training

We study modifications of the Viterbi Training (VT) algorithm to estimate emission parameters in Hidden Markov Models (HMM) in general, and in mixure models in particular. Motivated by applications of VT to HMM that are used in speech recognition, natural language modeling, image analysis, and bioinformatics, we investigate a possibility of alleviating the inconsistency of VT while controlling the amount of extra computations. Specifically, we propose to enable VT to asymptotically fix the true values of the parameters as does the EM algorithm. This relies on infinite Viterbi alignment and an associated with it limiting probability distribution. This paper, however, focuses on mixture models, an important case of HMM, wherein the limiting distribution can always be computed exactly; finding such limiting distribution for general HMM presents a more challenging task under our ongoing investigation. A simulation of a univariate Gaussian mixture shows that our central algorithm (VA1) can dramatically improve accuracy without much cost in computation time. We also present VA2, a more mathematically advanced correction to VT, verify by simulation its fast convergence and high accuracy; its computational feasibility remains to be investigated in future work.

math.ST↗