Self-Organizing Map - Simple demonstration

A simple and neat implementation of a self-organizing map algorithm

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While there are many sources that provide the pseudo-code of a self-organizing map (SOM), I could not find a simple implementation that clarifies every step of this algorithm which was introduced by Kohonen.

For this reason I implemented this clearly defined Matlab implementation and wanted to share it with you.

As a demonstration I use the RGB 3D training vectors. The trained SOM neurons result in a 2D spatial arrangement such that the neurons that have similar 3D weight vectors (i.e. similar colour representation) are located close to each other.

Cite As

George Azzopardi (2026). Self-Organizing Map - Simple demonstration (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/39930-self-organizing-map-simple-demonstration), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .

General Information

MATLAB Release Compatibility

  • Compatible with any release

Platform Compatibility

  • Windows
  • macOS
  • Linux
Version Published Release Notes Action
1.0.0.0