Meta-TadGAN: Time Series Anomaly Detection Using TadGAN with Meta-features

TadGAN is a recent algorithm with competitive performance on time series anomaly detection. The detection process of TadGAN works by comparing observed data with generated data. A challenge in anomaly detection is that there are anomalies which are not easy to detect by analyzing the original time series but have a clear effect on its higher-order characteristics. We propose Meta-TadGAN, an adaptation of TadGAN that analyzes meta-level representations of time series. That is, it analyzes a time series that represents the characteristics of the time series, rather than the original time series itself. Results on benchmark datasets as well as real-world data from fire detectors shows that the new method is competitive with TadGAN.