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Correlation vs Covariance

Student project for ECE302

by Blue



Correlation and Covariance

Correlation and covariance are very similarly related. Correlation is used to identify the relationship of two random variables, X and Y. In order to determine the dependence of the two events, the correlation coefficient,$ \rho $, is calculated as:

$ \rho (X,Y) = \frac{cov(X,Y)}{ \sqrt{var(X)var(Y)} } $

Covariance is defined as: E(X-E[X])(Y-E[Y]))[1] Correlation is then defined as: E(XY) [2]

If X and Y are independent of each other, that means they are uncorrelated with each other, or cov(X,Y) = 0. However, if X and Y are uncorrelated, that does not mean they are independent of each other. 1, -1, and 0 are the three extreme points $ p\rho X,Y) $ can represent. 1 represents that X and Y are linearly dependent of each other. In other words, Y-E[Y] is a positive multiple of X-E[X]. -1 represents that X and Y are inversely dependent of each other. In other words, Y-E[Y] is a negative multiple of X-E[X]. [1]

Examples

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Autocorrelation and Autocovariance

Correlation and covariance are comparing two random events. Autocorrelation and autocovariance are comparing the data points of one random event.

Autocorrelation is defined as : E(X\_{n1}-E[X1]


References

[1]: Ilya Pollak. General Random Variables. 2012. Retrieved from https://engineering.purdue.edu/~ipollak/ece302/SPRING12/notes/19_GeneralRVs-4_Multiple_RVs.pdf [2]: Ilya Pollak. Random Signals. 2004. Retrieved from https://engineering.purdue.edu/~ipollak/ee438/FALL04/notes/Section2.1.pdf

Back to ECE302 Spring 2013, Prof. Boutin

Alumni Liaison

Ph.D. 2007, working on developing cool imaging technologies for digital cameras, camera phones, and video surveillance cameras.

Buyue Zhang