TY - JOUR
T1 - AutoSCAN
T2 - automatic detection of DBSCAN parameters and efficient clustering of data in overlapping density regions
AU - Bushra, Adil Abdu
AU - Kim, Dongyeon
AU - Kan, Yejin
AU - Yi, Gangman
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright 2024 Bushra et al.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - The density-based clustering method is considered a robust approach in unsupervised clustering technique due to its ability to identify outliers, form clusters of irregular shapes and automatically determine the number of clusters. These unique properties helped its pioneering algorithm, the Density-based Spatial Clustering on Applications with Noise (DBSCAN), become applicable in datasets where various number of clusters of different shapes and sizes could be detected without much interference from the user. However, the original algorithm exhibits limitations, especially towards its sensitivity on its user input parameters minPts and ε. Additionally, the algorithm assigned inconsistent cluster labels to data objects found in overlapping density regions of separate clusters, hence lowering its accuracy. To alleviate these specific problems and increase the clustering accuracy, we propose two methods that use the statistical data from a given dataset’s k-nearest neighbor density distribution in order to determine the optimal ε values. Our approach removes the burden on the users, and automatically detects the clusters of a given dataset. Furthermore, a method to identify the accurate border objects of separate clusters is proposed and implemented to solve the unpredictability of the original algorithm. Finally, in our experiments, we show that our efficient re-implementation of the original algorithm to automatically cluster datasets and improve the clustering quality of adjoining cluster members provides increase in clustering accuracy and faster running times when compared to earlier approaches.
AB - The density-based clustering method is considered a robust approach in unsupervised clustering technique due to its ability to identify outliers, form clusters of irregular shapes and automatically determine the number of clusters. These unique properties helped its pioneering algorithm, the Density-based Spatial Clustering on Applications with Noise (DBSCAN), become applicable in datasets where various number of clusters of different shapes and sizes could be detected without much interference from the user. However, the original algorithm exhibits limitations, especially towards its sensitivity on its user input parameters minPts and ε. Additionally, the algorithm assigned inconsistent cluster labels to data objects found in overlapping density regions of separate clusters, hence lowering its accuracy. To alleviate these specific problems and increase the clustering accuracy, we propose two methods that use the statistical data from a given dataset’s k-nearest neighbor density distribution in order to determine the optimal ε values. Our approach removes the burden on the users, and automatically detects the clusters of a given dataset. Furthermore, a method to identify the accurate border objects of separate clusters is proposed and implemented to solve the unpredictability of the original algorithm. Finally, in our experiments, we show that our efficient re-implementation of the original algorithm to automatically cluster datasets and improve the clustering quality of adjoining cluster members provides increase in clustering accuracy and faster running times when compared to earlier approaches.
KW - DBSCAN
KW - Density-based clustering
KW - K-nearest neighbors
KW - Unsupervised clustering
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85190402462&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.7717/peerj-cs.1921
DO - 10.7717/peerj-cs.1921
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85190402462
SN - 2376-5992
VL - 10
JO - PeerJ Computer Science
JF - PeerJ Computer Science
M1 - e1921
ER -