001/**
002 * Copyright (c) 2011, The University of Southampton and the individual contributors.
003 * All rights reserved.
004 *
005 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
006 * are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
007 *
008 *   *  Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
009 *      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
010 *
011 *   *  Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
012 *      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
013 *      and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
014 *
015 *   *  Neither the name of the University of Southampton nor the names of its
016 *      contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this
017 *      software without specific prior written permission.
018 *
019 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
020 * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
021 * WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
022 * DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
023 * ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
024 * (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
025 * LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON
026 * ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
027 * (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
028 * SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
029 */
030package org.openimaj.ml.clustering;
031
032import org.openimaj.data.DataSource;
033import org.openimaj.experiment.evaluation.cluster.processor.Clusterer;
034
035/**
036 * A {@link SpatialClusterer} clusters data that can be represented as points in
037 * a space. Each point is typically represented by a numerical coordinate
038 * vector.
039 * 
040 * @author Jonathon Hare (jsh2@ecs.soton.ac.uk)
041 * @author Sina Samangooei (ss@ecs.soton.ac.uk)
042 * 
043 * @param <CLUSTERTYPE>
044 *            The type of cluster produced.
045 * @param <DATATYPE>
046 *            the primitive array datatype which represents a centroid of this
047 *            cluster.
048 */
049public interface SpatialClusterer<CLUSTERTYPE extends SpatialClusters<DATATYPE>, DATATYPE> extends Clusterer<DATATYPE[]>{
050
051        /**
052         * Perform clustering on the given data.
053         * 
054         * @param data
055         *            the data.
056         * 
057         * @return the generated clusters.
058         */
059        public abstract CLUSTERTYPE cluster(final DATATYPE[] data);
060
061        /**
062         * Perform clustering with data from a data source. The {@link DataSource}
063         * could potentially be backed by disk rather in memory.
064         * 
065         * @param data
066         *            the data.
067         * 
068         * @return the generated clusters.
069         */
070        public abstract CLUSTERTYPE cluster(DataSource<DATATYPE> data);
071
072        // /**
073        // * Get the data dimensionality
074        // *
075        // * @return the data dimensionality.
076        // */
077        // public abstract int numDimensions();
078        //
079        // /**
080        // * Get the number of clusters.
081        // *
082        // * @return number of clusters.
083        // */
084        // public int numClusters();
085        //
086        // /**
087        // * Get the default hard assigner for this clusterer. This method is
088        // * potentially expensive, so callers should only call it once, and hold on
089        // * to the result (and reuse it).
090        // *
091        // * @return a hard assigner.
092        // */
093        // public HardAssigner<DATATYPE, ?, ?> defaultHardAssigner();
094}