ANNview: a case tool for development and evaluation of artificial neural networks

Striving to achieve the cognitive power of the human brain, researchers have turned to studying Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models through computer simulation. Computer programs have been written that permit the testing and evaluation of different ANN models. These programs provide facilities to layout different networks using a limited set of models, but do not allow the user to easily develop and create new training algorithms or activation functions. ANNview was written to provide the neural researcher with a Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) environment to develop new ANN models and a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to create and interconnect processing elements. The provided tools permit users to easily generate new ANN and processing element models from existing models. These models can then be tested and evaluated in different networks layouts using the existing simulation program simANNs and its parallel extension, parsimANNs. This study shows the benefits and power of using a CASE tool in developing and evaluating ANNs.