An artificial immune system for data analysis

We present a simplified view of those parts of the human immune system which can be used to provide the basis for a data analysis tool. The motivation for and reasoning behind such a model is given and the desire for a 'transparent' model and meaningful visualization and interpretation techniques is noted. A minimalist formulation of an artificial immune system and some of its behaviour is described. A simple implementation and a suitable visualization technique are demonstrated using some trivial data and the famous 'iris' data set. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.