Cluster Validity Index for Uncertain Data Based on a Probabilistic Distance Measure in Feature Space

Abstract

Cluster validity indices (CVIs) for evaluating the result of the optimal number of clusters are critical measures in clustering problems. Most CVIs are designed for typical data-type objects called certain data objects. Certain data objects only have a singular value and include no uncertainty, so they are assumed to be information-abundant in the real world. In this study, new CVIs for uncertain data, based on kernel probabilistic distance measures to calculate the distance between two distributions in feature space, are proposed for uncertain clusters with arbitrary shapes, sub-clusters, and noise in objects. By transforming original uncertain data into kernel spaces, the proposed CVI accurately measures the compactness and separability of a cluster for arbitrary cluster shapes and is robust to noise and outliers in a cluster. The proposed CVI was evaluated for diverse types of simulated and real-life uncertain objects, confirming that the proposed validity indexes in feature space outperform the pre-existing ones in the original space.