Forthoseenteringthefieldofartificialneuralnetworks,therehasbeenanacuteneedforanauthoritativetextbookthatexplainsthemainideasclearlyandconsistentlyusingthebasictoolsoflinearalgebra,calculus,andsimpleprobabilitytheory.Therehavebeenmanyattemptstoprovidesuchatext,butuntilnow,nonehassucceeded.Someauthorshavefailedtoseparatethebasicideasandprinciplesfromthesoftandfuzzyintuitionsthatledtosomeofthemodelsaswellastomostoftheexaggeratedclaims.Othershavebeenunwillingtousethebasicmathematicaltoolsthatareessentialforarigorousunderstandingofthematerial.Yetothershavetriedtocovertoomanydifferentkindsofneuralnetworkwithoutgoingintoenoughdepthonanyoneofthem.Themostsuccessfulattempttodatehasbeen"IntroductiontotheTheoryofNeuralComputation"byHertz,KroghandPalmer.Unfortunately,thisbookstartedlifeasagraduatecourseinstatisticalphysicsanditshows.Sodespiteitsmanyadmirablequalitiesitisnotidealasageneraltextbook.
1