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From: Dave the Troll <eldb3@lboro.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: ??inputs??
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Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 08:36:24 GMT
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Dennis wrote:
> 
> Hopefully, someone can answer a fairly basic question I have with regards
> to what form certain types of inputs should take, when presenting them to
> a BP NN.
> 
> Lets say I'm designing a net to predict soccer results (for example!).
> There are six different possible results in my model; Home-win,
> Home-draw, Home-lose, Away-win, Away-draw and Away-lose.
> 
> If I want the net to 'look' at each teams last three games there are a
> total of six results, three for each team, that I need to present to the
> BP NN. My question is, what is the best way to present these inputs?
> 
> Possible forms could be:
> 
> 1) Give each possible result a number from 1 to 6 and use these numbers
> as they are.
> 2) Convert these numbers to binary form, and then input them.
> 
> Any advice??
> 
> Thanks

Using the method that you propose, you are throwing away information.  I would 
guess that you have the actual scores (number of goals) from these games and 
thus have a direct numerical measure of success for each game.

So how about a 12 input network, where the twelve inputs are the goals for and 
against each of the two teams over the past 3 games.  Two outputs could then be 
trained to predict the expected number of goals for and against each team.  By 
applying Baysian and probablistic methods you could even give a probability of 
each of the six outcomes.

[BTW, what is the difference between a home draw and an away draw?]

Dave Barnett
