Can I use strings for Encog ideals/output?

Question

I am new to encog and i am doing an encog neural networks trainer for image classification in java.

I want to know if i can use strings as the ideal for encog neural nets. Thank you.

Answer 1

Yes. When you normalize your data, each String will become a class. For example:

You have classes :

car, motorcycle, bike

Once normalized, you will have three different neurons that fire according to the class as such:

car : 1, 0, 0
motorcycle : 0, 1, 0
bike : 0, 0, 1

Play around with your data in the encog workbench to get a feel for it, the workbench makes it pretty easy.

Good luck!