Optimal association with partly missing key vectors.

A new association scheme which can still recall appropriate data when some key elements are missing (blank) is presented. The traditional associative memory models are designed to deal with complete (memorized) keys, but in the real world, key elements are often missing due to error, equipment failure, observation difficulty, etc. The traditional models, in this case, can not have an optimal association except for special cases. When an incomplete key containing blanks is given, we wish to get the same data, as nearly as possible, as would be obtained with the complete key. In this paper, the optimal associative memory model which operates with partly missing keys is proposed. The model is constructed on the basis of the theory of the pseudoinverse of matrices. Even from the incomplete keys which contain a large percentage of blanks, the model recalls the appropriate data optimally under the MSE criterion. From the results of computer simulations, we can show that the model has the expected ability.