Expert Refined Topic Models to Edit Topic Clusters in Image Analysis Applied to Welding Engineering

This paper proposes a new method to generate edited topics or clusters to analyze images for prioritizing quality issues. The approach is associated with a new way for subject matter experts to edit the cluster definitions by “zapping” or “boosting” pixels. We refer to the information entered by users or experts as “high-level” data and we are apparently the first to allow in our model for the possibility of errors coming from the experts. The collapsed Gibbs sampler is proposed that permits efficient processing for datasets involving tens of thousands of records. Numerical examples illustrate the benefits of the high-level data related to improving accuracy measured by Kullback–Leibler (KL) distance. The numerical examples include a Tungsten inert gas example from the literature. In addition, a novel laser aluminum alloy image application illustrates the assignment of welds to groups that correspond to part conformance standards.