PyBasicDTW

A readable dynamic time warping (dtw) library that performs classical dtw and subsequence dtw.

Features

Classical DTW: Finds the similarity between two sequences
Subsequence-DTW: Finds the most similar subsequence in one sequences that matches the other sequence.
Multidimension sequences supported
Customisable dimension weighting
Customisable step pattern and weights
Customisable distance metrics

Dependencies

Numpy
Matplotlib

Quick Start

First install pybasicdtw and dependencies using pip

 pip install pybasicdtw

Create a new python script and import the pybasicdtw modules. The following steps will be split between classical and subsequence dtw.

1. Classical DTW

Import the required classes.

    from pybasicdtw import DTW, SDTW, NeighbourExclusion, Helper

Distance Metric argument can be of any callable type with two numpy array inputs and one numpy array output. Typically this is a lambda function, which you can create yourself or use the default square difference metric.

For example, to use the euclidean distance metric: or

    lambda x,y: np.square(x-y)

Step Pattern argument can be of any numpy array that describes the step pattern to calculate the cost matrix and optimal warping path. Each element in this array describes a step backwards in terms of (row, column).

For example:

    stepPattern = np.array([(1,1),(1,0),(0,1)])
    # (1,1) take one step backward on the row and one step backwards on the column
    # (1,0) take one step backward on the row
    # (0,00 take one step backward on the column
    # Visual Explanation, imagine you are looking down on a 2D matrix.
    #  (1,0) -------
    #             / |
    #            /  |
    #           /   |
    #     (1,1)/    |
    #               (0,1)

This is the default step pattern used.

Now we wil create our own sequences to run through. These can be be multidimensional.

    import numpy as np
    # 1 Dimension, each element corresponds some value at time t.
    x = np.array([1,2,3])
    y = np.array([1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8])

    # 2 Dimension, each element corresponds to values of a dimension across time t.
    x2D = np.array([[1,2,3],[3,2,1]])
    y2D = np.array([[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8],[8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1]])

The library requires these sequences to be of a specific format. Where each element describes the values of all dimensions at that time t. This can be easily done using the helper class.

    from pybasicdtw import Helper

    # For both 1D and 2D arrays
    x = Helper.InputFormat(x)
    # x becomes np.array([[1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7],[8]])
    y = Helper.InputFormat(y)
    # y becomes np.array([[1,8],[2,7],[3,6],[4,5],[5,4],[6,3],[7,2],[8,1]])

Now we can proceed to calculating the similarity between these two sequences.

The basic function call using default values:

    # We will be using the 2D array example from now onwards.
    # Default values:
    # DistanceMetric = Euclidean
    # StepPattern = Classic = np.array([(1,1),(1,0),(0,1)])
    # StepPatterWeights = np.array([1,1,1])
    # DimensionWeights = np.array([1,...])
    dtw = DTW(x,y)

Accessing properties of the similarity match

    # Accumulated cost matrix
    dtw.accumulatedCostMatrix # an n x m matrix where n = length of x and m = length of y.
    # Local cost matrix
    dtw.localCostMatrix # an n x m matrix where n = length of x and m = length of y.
    # Match path describing the points of similarity between both sequences.
    # Each element of this path represents the index of the matched points, (x,y) is the order of the indices for sequence x and y.
    # NOTE: The path is in reverse order, where element at index 0 is the end point.
    path, totalCost = dtw.WarpingPath()
    path # e.g. array([(3,3),(2,2),(1,1)])
    # The total local cost of the matched path
    totalCost:float # e.g. 10.2

2. Subsequence DTW

The steps to find subsequence similarity matches are similar to the Classical DTW with just some extra steps.

Import the required classes.

    from pybasicdtw import SDTW, NeighbourExclusion, Helper

We will be using the numpy array we generated from the Classical DTW example. If you are unsure what format the inputs need to be please refer to the instructions in the Classical DTW example.

    from pybasicdtw import SDTW, NeighbourExclusion, Helper
    import numpy as np
    # 1 Dimension, each element corresponds some value at time t.
    x = np.array([1,2,3])
    y = np.array([1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8])
    # For 1D array, we need to ensure each element is in its own array.
    x = Helper.InputFormat(x)
    y = Helper.InputFormat(y)

Firstly, we initalise sdtw which creates the cost matrices needed to find similar subsequences. The x argument is the sequence we are trying find, and the y argument is the sequence in which we are trying find subsequences of within it that best match the x sequence.

    # Optional arguments and their default values are explained in the Classical DTW example
    sdtw = SDTW(x,y)

Now we can find the first similar subsequence in sequence y. But before this, lets quickly go through the arguments of this function.

Neighbour Exclusion argument describes the method use to exclude neighbouring end points before the next match is found. All matches are created backwards, starting at the end point. There are two types of exclusion methods you provided out of the box, Distance and LocalMaximum based exclusion, however you can pass your own method if you wish.

The Distance method excludes neighbouring points within a set distance of indices, this can be selected using the NeighbourExclusion class as follows, the distance can be set using the distance keyword argument when called the FindMatch function:

    NeighbourExclusion.Distance
    # how to specify distance
    sdtw.FindMatch(distance=10)

The LocalMaximum method excludes neighbouring points up to the next local maximum. This can be selected using the NeighbourExclusion class as follows:

    NeighbourExclusion.LocalMaximum

The OverlapMatches argument gives you the option to overlap subsequence matches. By default this is false, therefore no two subsequence matches can overlap.

The InvertEndPointsSelection argument specifies if there are two non-unique optimum end points which one to choose from. The default is True, hence it will always choose the end point with the largest index. Hence, False is the opposite.

    # returns a tuple (path, totalCost)
    path, totalCost = sdtw.FindMatch(NeighbourExclusion.Distance, distance=10)

Accessing properties of the sdtw class

    # Accumulated cost matrix
    sdtw.accumulatedCostMatrix # an n x m matrix where n = length of x and m = length of y.
    # Local cost matrix
    sdtw.localCostMatrix # an n x m matrix where n = length of x and m = length of y.
    # gets all matches up to this current time as an ordered list of Tuples (path, totalCost)
    sdtw.matches

Other methods of the sdtw class.