Multi-label feature selection based on fuzzy neighborhood rough sets

Abstract Multi-label feature selection, a crucial preprocessing step for multi-label classification, has been widely applied to data mining, artificial intelligence and other fields. However, most of the existing multi-label feature selection methods for dealing with mixed data have the following problems: (1) These methods rarely consider the importance of features from multiple perspectives, which analyzes features not comprehensive enough. (2) These methods select feature subsets according to the positive region, while ignoring the uncertainty implied by the upper approximation. To address these problems, a multi-label feature selection method based on fuzzy neighborhood rough set is developed in this article. First, the fuzzy neighborhood approximation accuracy and fuzzy decision are defined in the fuzzy neighborhood rough set model, and a new multi-label fuzzy neighborhood conditional entropy is designed. Second, a mixed measure is proposed by combining the fuzzy neighborhood conditional entropy from information view with the approximate accuracy of fuzzy neighborhood from algebra view, to evaluate the importance of features from different views. Finally, a forward multi-label feature selection algorithm is proposed for removing redundant features and decrease the complexity of multi-label classification. The experimental results illustrate the validity and stability of the proposed algorithm in multi-label fuzzy neighborhood decision systems, when compared with related methods on ten multi-label datasets.