Visualization methods for neural networks

Horst Bischof, Axel Pinz, Walter G. Kropatsch

Abstract: The interpretation of neural network behavior is of particular interest in neural network research. Visualization methods provide the necessary means to simultaneously analyze the huge amount of information hidden in the network. The authors propose a framework for visualization methods suited for feed forward neural networks. The basic idea is to use the spatial information available outside the network to arrange the data to be visualized (weights, activations of units) in the spatial domain of the display. Several examples which illustrate the proposed framework are presented.<