The Evaluation of Competing Classifiers

<p>This dissertation research makes contributions towards the objective evaluation of competing classifiers i.e. classification systems (CSs) or pattern recognition algorithms. Automatic CSs have been under development for almost 40 years in a wide range of military and medical applications. During this period scientists and engineers have developed extensive theory and algorithms for classification but by comparison have focused little on the testing and evaluation of their systems. Classifier evaluation is very important in the fields of automatic target recognition (ATR) and pilot workload classification. In order for military operators to be confident in new CSs they must have an objective way of testing and evaluating competing systems.The purpose of this dissertation research is to advance the knowledge of classifier evaluation. The basis of the research is a commonly used evaluation tool in ATR and medical applications called the receiver operating characteristic (R.OC) curve. A proof of convergence with respect to increasing sample size for these ROC curves is provided. This ROC convergence theorem is important because it provides the basis for a framework for the comparison of ROC curves and hence the comparison of classifiers.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>