Bayersian Parameter Estimation: Gaussian Case - Rhea

WARNING: THIS MATERIAL WAS PLAGIARIZED FROM DUDA AND HART!!!!!

Introduction: Bayesian Estimation

Although the estimator obtained from Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) and Bayersian Parameter Estimation(BPE) would be similar or even identical for most of the time, the key idea(structure) for MLE and BPE is completely different. For Maximum Likelihood Estimation, we can consider the parameter estimated to be a fixed number (or several numbers if more than one parameters), while in BPE the estimated parameter is a vector (r.v.).

To start with, Bayes' formula was transformed into the following form given samples class $ \mathcal{D} $:

Based on the observation on above equations, it can be concluded that both class-conditional densities and the priori could be obtained based on the training data.

Now, assuming that the we are working on a supervised case with labelled training data, that is all samples from the training data could be separated accurately into c subsets $ \mathcal{D}_1, \mathcal{D}_2, ..., \mathcal{D}_c $.

Hence, the above equation could be further developed into the following form:

Now, assume $ p(x) $ has a parameter form. We are given a set of $ N $ independent samples $ \mathcal{D} = \{x_1, x_2, ... , x_N \} $. View $ \theta $ as a random variable. Consider more specifically in continuous case:

$ p(x|D) $ can be computed as:

Bayesian Parameter Estimation: General Theory

We first start with a generalized approach which can be applied to any situation in which the unknown density can be parameterized. The basic assumptions are as follows:

1. The form of the density $ p(x|\theta) $ is assumed to be known, but the value of the parameter vector $ \theta $ is not known exactly.

2. The initial knowledge about $ \theta $ is assumed to be contained in a known a priori density $ p(\theta) $.

3. The rest of the knowledge about $ \theta $ is contained in a set $ \mathcal{D} $ of n samples $ x_1, x_2, ... , x_n $ drawn independently according to the unknown probability density $ p(x) $.

Accordingly, already know:

and By Bayes Theorem,

Now, since we are attempting to transform the equation to be based on samples $ x_k $, by independent assumption,

Hence, if a sample $ \mathcal{D} $ has n samples, we can denote the sample space as: $ \mathcal{D}^n = \{x_1, x_2, ... x_n\} $.

Combine the sample space definition with the equation above:

Using this equation, we can transform the Bayesian Parameter Estimation to:

Bayesian Parameter Estimation: Gaussian Case

The Univariate Case: $ p(\mu|\mathcal{D}) $

Consider the case where $ \mu $ is the only unknown parameter. For simplicity we assume:

From the previous section, the following expression could be easily obtained using Bayes' formula:

Where $ \alpha $ is a factorization factor independent of $ \mu $.

Now, substitute $ p(x_k|\mu) $ and $ p(u) $ with:

The equation has now become:

Update the scaling factor to $ \alpha' $ and $ \alpha'' $ correspondingly,

With the knowledge of Gaussian distribution:

Finally, the estimate of $ u_n $ can be obtained:

Where $ \bar{x_n} $ is defined as sample means and $ n $ is the sample size.

In order to form a Gaussian distribution, the variance $ \sigma_n^2 $ associated with $ \mu_n $ could also be obtained correspondingly as:

Observation:

$ p(\mu|D) $ becomes more sharply peaked around $ \mu_D $

The Univariate Case: $ p(x|\mathcal{D}) $

Having obtained the posteriori density for the mean $ u_n $ of set $ \mathcal{D} $, the remaining of the task is to estimate the "class-conditional" density for $ p(x|D) $.

Based on the text Duda's chatpter #3.4.2 and Prof. Mimi's notes:

Where $ f(\sigma, \sigma_n) $ is defined as:

Hence, $ p(x|D) $ is normally distributed as:

References

[1]. Mireille Boutin, "ECE662: Statistical Pattern Recognition and Decision Making Processes," Purdue University, Spring 2014.

[2]. R. Duda, P. Hart, Pattern Classification. Wiley-Interscience. Second Edition, 2000.

Questions and comments

If you have any questions, comments, etc. please post them on this page.

Back to ECE 662 S14 course wiki

Back to ECE 662 course page