Spatial Organization Using Self-Organizing Neural Networks

Spatial hypertext systems use physical properties as color, dimensions, and position to represent relationships between documents. These systems allows the user to express a lot of different relationships between information but the structure should be build by hand by the user. This can be complex if a large number of information is involved. Self-organizing neural networks map can automatically generate a document map in which clusters of similar documents are organized. These maps can be used as a navigation tool “per se” or as a starting point for more complex spatial organizations. Systems based on SOM network can also automatically find the right map location for a new document, giving to the user a valuable help in information organization. In this paper the application of Self-Organizing Maps as a tool to develop information maps and spatial hypertext systems prototype is discussed and some applications are presented.