用曲率检测数据边界,无需密度假设,提升高维聚类效果。
A Mean Curvature Approach to Boundary Detection: Geometric Insights for Unsupervised Learning

- 基于局部邻域的曲率计算,不依赖参数化或密度估计。
- 在复杂高维数据上显著改善聚类性能,尤其在非线性结构中。
- 适合需要无监督边界识别与几何过滤的研究者。
高维数据中的精确边界检测仍是无监督学习的核心挑战,尤其在非线性结构和异质密度条件下。本文提出均曲率边界点(MCBP),一种基于几何机器学习的新框架,突破传统密度方法,通过离散近似形状算子,从局部k近邻邻域估算点态均曲率,实现无需显式流形参数化的边界建模。核心思想是将高曲率区域作为边界、异常点和过渡点的统一几何表征:其自然对应于簇间转变、几何不规则性和低密度界面。为此设计自适应百分位阈值法,实现多尺度边界提取,避免人工设定密度参数。进一步提出曲率驱动的数据分解机制,将样本分为平滑(低曲率)与边界(高曲率)两部分,起到非线性几何滤波作用,增强簇可分性并提升下游无监督算法鲁棒性。在合成与真实数据集上的大量实验表明,MCBP在复杂高维场景中持续提升聚类表现。该工作为几何机器学习提供具体贡献,凸显曲率感知分析作为连接微分几何与数据建模的统一范式的潜力。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Accurate boundary detection in high-dimensional data remains a central challenge in unsupervised learning, particularly in the presence of non-linear structures and heterogeneous densities. In this work, we introduce Mean Curvature Boundary Points (MCBP), a novel geometric framework grounded in Geometric Machine Learning that departs from traditional density-based approaches by explicitly modeling the intrinsic curvature of the data manifold. The method relies on a discrete approximation of the shape operator, estimated from local k-nearest neighbor patches, to compute pointwise mean curvature without requiring explicit manifold parametrization. The key insight of MCBP is to use mean curvature as a principled descriptor of boundary structure: high-curvature regions naturally correspond to transitions between clusters, geometric irregularities, and low-density interfaces. This yields a unified geometric interpretation of boundary, outlier, and transition points. We further introduce an adaptive percentile-based thresholding scheme that enables multiscale boundary extraction without relying on ad hoc density parameters. Beyond detection, we propose a curvature-driven data decomposition that separates samples into smooth (low-curvature) and boundary (high-curvature) subsets, effectively acting as a non-linear geometric filtering mechanism. This representation enhances cluster separability and improves the robustness of downstream unsupervised algorithms. Extensive experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate that MCBP consistently improves clustering performance, particularly in complex and high-dimensional scenarios. These results position MCBP as a concrete contribution to Geometric Machine Learning, highlighting the potential of curvature-aware analysis as a unifying paradigm bridging differential geometry and data-driven modeling.
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