Artificial Neural Networks/Pattern Recognition

Artificial neural networks are useful for pattern matching applications. Pattern matching consists of the ability to identify the class of input signals or patterns. Pattern matching ANN are typically trained using supervised learning techniques. One application where artificial neural nets have been applied extensively is optical character recognition (OCR). OCR has been a very successful area of research involving artificial neural networks.

An example of a pattern matching neural network is that used by VISA for identifying suspicious transactions and fraudulent purchases. When input symbols do not match an accepted pattern, the system raises a warning flag that indicates a potential problem.