<p>Depends on how your game is played. Is there any meaning assigned to the order of cards, or are all 5 played simultaneously? If order matters, use 5 one-hot vectors so you can choose how to order them, otherwise use a single 5-hot input vector. I would also add that if <strong>temporal</strong> order matters, you could also use a <strong>recurrent</strong> net with a 52-element input and feed the five one-hot vectors one after another.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-29T03:21:54.190Z
2018-06-29T03:21:54.190Z
cantordust
<p>How should I design my input layer for the following classification problem?</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Input</strong>: 5 cards (from a deck of 52 cards) in a card game;</p>
<p><strong>Output</strong>: some classification using a neural network</p>
</blockquote>
<p>How should I model the input layer?</p>
<p><strong>Option A</strong>: 5 one-hot encodings for the 5 cards, i.e. 5 one-hot vectors of length 52 = 260 input vector. For example</p>
<pre><code>[
[0,0,0,0,0,0,1,...],
[1,0,0,0,0,0,0,...],
[0,0,0,0,0,1,0,...],
[0,0,1,0,0,0,0,...],
[0,0,0,0,1,0,0,...]
]
</code></pre>
<p><strong>Option B</strong>: 5 hot encoding encompassing all 5 cards in one 52 element vector</p>
<pre><code>[1,0,1,0,1,1,1,...]
</code></pre>
<p>What are the disadvantages between A and B?</p>

<neural-networks><machine-learning><ai-design><data-preprocessing>
How should I encode the input which are 5 cards from a deck of 52 cards?
deekay42
# How should I encode the input which are 5 cards from a deck of 52 cards?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-06-28)

How should I design my input layer for the following classification problem?

Input: 5 cards (from a deck of 52 cards) in a card game;
Output: some classification using a neural network

How should I model the input layer?
Option A: 5 one-hot encodings for the 5 cards, i.e. 5 one-hot vectors of length 52 = 260 input vector. For example
[
[0,0,0,0,0,0,1,...],
[1,0,0,0,0,0,0,...],
[0,0,0,0,0,1,0,...],
[0,0,1,0,0,0,0,...],
[0,0,0,0,1,0,0,...]
]

Option B: 5 hot encoding encompassing all 5 cards in one 52 element vector
[1,0,1,0,1,1,1,...]

What are the disadvantages between A and B?

**Tags:** neural-networks, machine-learning, ai-design, data-preprocessing


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-06-29. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

Depends on how your game is played. Is there any meaning assigned to the order of cards, or are all 5 played simultaneously? If order matters, use 5 one-hot vectors so you can choose how to order them, otherwise use a single 5-hot input vector. I would also add that if **temporal** order matters, you could also use a **recurrent** net with a 52-element input and feed the five one-hot vectors one after another.


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