ANN_TEST
Compute Approximate Nearest Neighbors

ANN_TEST is a C++ program which computes approximate nearest neighbors when the data and query points are available in files.

ANN_TEST relies on the ANN library to quickly and efficiently compute the information. The brute force method simply computes, for each query point, the distance to every data point, and returns the data point whose distance is least.

This approach might seem to be the fastest possible, but it is not. Particularly when there are many data points or query points, it is worth the overhead of computing a data structure that allows nearest neighbor queries to be computed quickly and efficiently.

The greatest efficiency occurs if the user is willing to accept approximate nearest neighbors. That is, the program will return a data point that is either the nearest, or "almost" the nearest, to within some tolerance. In many applications, the controllable error of this approximation is worth the marked speedup in execution.

Program Details:

ANN_TEST is a driver for testing and evaluating the ANN library for computing approximate nearest neighbors. It allows the user to generate data and query sets of various sizes, dimensions, and distributions, to build KD and BD trees of various types, run queries and output performance statistics.

Usage:

ann_test < test_input > test_output: reads test_input, a list of directives described below, and writes the results to test_output.

Directives consist of a directive name, followed by list of arguments. Arguments and directives are separated by white space (blank, tab, and newline). String arguments are not quoted, and consist of a string of nonwhite chacters. A character "#" denotes a comment. The following characters up to the end of line are ignored. Comments may only be inserted between directives (not within the argument list of a directive).

ANN_TEST can perform the following operations. How these operations are performed depends on the options which are described later:

Data Generation:

read_data_pts file

Create a set of data points whose coordinates are input from file file.

gen_data_pts

Create a set of data points whose coordinates are generated from the current point distribution.
Building the tree

build_ann

Generate an approximate nearest neighbor structure for the current data set, using the selected splitting rules. Any existing tree will be destroyed.
Query Generation/Searching:

read_query_pts file

Create a set of query points whose coordinates are input from file file.

gen_query_pts

Create a set of query points whose coordinates are generated from the current point distribution.
run_queries string

Apply nearest neighbor searching to the query points using the approximate nearest neighbor structure and the search strategy specified by string = "standard" for standard KD tree search, or "priority" for a priority search.
Miscellaneous:

output_label

Output a label to the output file.

dump file

Dump the current structure to the given file. (The dump format is explained further in the source file for kd_tree.C)
load file

Load a tree from the data file file, which was created by the dump operation. Any existing tree will be destroyed.

Options

How these operations are performed depends on a set of options. If an option is not specified, a default value is used. An option retains its value until it is set again. String inputs are not enclosed in quotes, and must contain no embedded white space (sorry, this is C++'s convention).

Options affecting search tree structure:

The test program can perform the following operations. How these operations are performed depends on the options which are described later:

split_rule type

Type of splitting rule to use in building the search tree. The default is "suggest". See the file kd_split.C for more information. Choices are:

kd = optimized KD tree
midpt = midpoint split
fair = fair split
sl_midpt = sliding midpoint split
sl_fair = sliding fair split
suggest = authors's choice for best

shrink_rule type

Type of shrinking rule to use in building a BD tree data structure. If "none" is given, then no shrinking is performed and the result is a KD tree. The default is "none". See the file bd_tree.C for more information. Choices are:

none = perform no shrinking
simple = simple shrinking
centroid = centroid shrinking
suggest = authors's choice for best

bucket_size int

Bucket size, that is, the maximum number of points stored in each leaf node.

Options affecting data and query point generation:

dim int

Dimension of space.

seed int

Seed for random number generation.

data_size int

Number of data points. When reading data points from a file, this indicates the maximum number of points for storage allocation. Default = 100.

query_size int

Same as data_size for query points.

std_dev float

Standard deviation (used in Gauss, and clustered distributions). This is the "small" distribution for clus_ellipsoids. Default = 1.

std_dev_lo float

Low standard deviation (used in clus ellipsoids). Default = 1.

std_dev_hi float

High standard deviation (used in clus_ellipsoids). Default = 1.

corr_coef float

Correlation coefficient (used in co-Gauss and co_Lapace distributions). Default = 0.05.

colors int

Number of color classes (clusters) (used in the clustered distributions). Default = 5.

new_clust

Once generated, cluster centers are not normally regenerated. This is so that both query points and data points can be generated using the same set of clusters. This option forces new cluster centers to be generated with the next generation of either data or query points.

max_clus_dim int

Maximum dimension of clusters (used in clus_orth_flats and clus_ellipsoids). Default = 1.

distribution string

Type of input distribution. See the file rand.C for further information. Values for string are:

uniform = uniform over cube [-1,1]^d.
gauss = Gaussian with mean 0
laplace = Laplacian, mean 0 and var 1
co_gauss = correlated Gaussian
co_laplace = correlated Laplacian
clus_gauss = clustered Gaussian
clus_orth_flats = clusters of orth flats
clus_ellipsoids = clusters of ellipsoids

Options affecting nearest neighbor search:

epsilon float: Error bound for approx. near neigh. search.
near_neigh int: Number of nearest neighbors to compute.
max_pts_visit int: Maximum number of points to visit before terminating. (Used in applications where real-time performance is important.) (Default = 0, which means no limit.)

Options affection general program behavior:

stats string

Level of statistics output. Values for string are:

silent = no output,
exec_time += execution time only
prep_stats += preprocessing statistics
query_stats += query performance stats
query_res += results of queries
show_pts += show the data points
show_struct += print search structure

validate string

Validate experiment and compute average error. Since validation causes exact nearest neighbors to be computed by the brute force method, this can take a long time. Values for string are:

on = turn validation on
off = turn validation off

true_near_neigh int

Number of true nearest neighbors to compute. When validating, we compute the difference in rank between each reported nearest neighbor and the true nearest neighbor of the same rank. Thus it is necessary to compute a few more true nearest neighbors. By default we compute 10 more than near_neigh. With this option the exact number can be set. (Used only when validating.)

Example:

      output_label test_run_0   # Label this run "test_run_0".
      validate off              # Do not perform validation.
      dim 16                    # The points are in dimension 16.
      stats query_stats         # Output performance statistics for queries
      seed 121212               # Set the random number seed.

      data_size 1000
      distribution uniform
      gen_data_pts              # Generate 1000 uniform data points in dim 16.

      query_size 100
      std_dev 0.05
      distribution clus_gauss
      gen_query_pts             # Generate 100 query points
                                # in 10 clusters with std_dev 0.05

      bucket_size 2
      split_rule kd
      shrink_rule none
      build_ann                 # Set up a KD tree with bucket size 2.

      epsilon 0.1               # We accept 10% error.
      near_neigh 5              # We ask for the 5 nearest neighbors;
      max_pts_visit 100         # Stop search if more than 100 points seen

      run_queries standard      # Run the queries;

      data_size 500
      read_data_pts data.in     # Read up to 500 data points from file data.in

      split_rule sl_midpt       # Use the sliding midpoint shrink.
      shrink_rule simple        # Use a simple shrink.
      build_ann                 # Set up a BD tree. midpoint split

      epsilon 0                 # We accept 0% error.
      run_queries priority      # Run the queries.

Languages:

ANN_TEST is available in a C++ version.

Related Data and Programs:

ANN, a C++ library which creates and manipulates the data structures necessary to carry out the approximate nearest neighbor computations.

ANN_TO_FIG, a C++ program which can convert the record of a search carried out by ANN_TEST into a graphical image in the FIG format.

Author:

David Mount, Sunil Arya.

Reference:

David Mount,
The ANN Programming Manual.
Sunil Arya, David Mount, Nathan Netanyahu, Ruth Silverman, Angela Wu,
An Optimal Algorithm for Approximate Nearest Neighbor Searching in Fixed Dimensions,
Journal of the ACM,
Volume 45, Number 6, November 1998, pages 891-923.
http://www.cs.umd.edu/~mount/ANN/, the web site.

Source Code:

ann_test.cpp, the main library;
rand.cpp, the main library;
rand.hpp;

Examples and Tests:

TEST1:

test1_data.pts, a set of 20 data points in 2D.
test1_query.pts, a set of 10 query points in 2D.
test1_input.txt, the input commands.
test1_output.txt, the printed output from ANN_TEST.

TEST2:

test2_data.pts, a set of 5000 data points in 8D.
test2_query.pts, a set of 100 query points in 8D.
test2_input.txt, the input commands.
test2_output.txt, the printed output from ANN_TEST.

TEST3:

test3_input.txt, the input commands.
test3_output.txt, the printed output from ANN_TEST.
test3.dmp, a dump file containing information about the search tree, which can be plotted by ANN_TO_FIG.

You can go up one level to the C++ source codes.

Last revised on 15 May 2006.

ANN_TEST Compute Approximate Nearest Neighbors