Efficient incremental constrained clustering

Clustering with constraints is an emerging area of data mining research. However, most work assumes that the constraints are given as one large batch. In this paper we explore the situation where the constraints are incrementally given. In this way the user after seeing a clustering can provide positive and negative feedback via constraints to critique a clustering solution. We consider the problem of efficiently updating a clustering to satisfy the new and old constraints rather than re-clustering the entire data set. We show that the problem of incremental clustering under constraints is NP-hard in general, but identify several sufficient conditions which lead to efficiently solvable versions. These translate into a set of rules on the types of constraints that can be added and constraint set properties that must be maintained. We demonstrate that this approach is more efficient than re-clustering the entire data set and has several other advantages.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: KDD
• Authors: Ian Davidson, S. S. Ravi, Martin Ester
• Keywords: Data Mining, Entire Data Set, Incremental Clustering, KDD 2007, Old Constraints