Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

November 3, 2016

Encyclopedia of Distances

Filed under: Distance,Edit Distance,Mathematics,Metric Spaces — Patrick Durusau @ 9:37 am

Encyclopedia of Distances (4th edition) by Michel Marie Deza and Elena Deza.

Springer description:

This 4-th edition of the leading reference volume on distance metrics is characterized by updated and rewritten sections on some items suggested by experts and readers, as well a general streamlining of content and the addition of essential new topics. Though the structure remains unchanged, the new edition also explores recent advances in the use of distances and metrics for e.g. generalized distances, probability theory, graph theory, coding theory, data analysis.

New topics in the purely mathematical sections include e.g. the Vitanyi multiset-metric, algebraic point-conic distance, triangular ratio metric, Rossi-Hamming metric, Taneja distance, spectral semimetric between graphs, channel metrization, and Maryland bridge distance. The multidisciplinary sections have also been supplemented with new topics, including: dynamic time wrapping distance, memory distance, allometry, atmospheric depth, elliptic orbit distance, VLBI distance measurements, the astronomical system of units, and walkability distance.

Leaving aside the practical questions that arise during the selection of a ‘good’ distance function, this work focuses on providing the research community with an invaluable comprehensive listing of the main available distances.

As well as providing standalone introductions and definitions, the encyclopedia facilitates swift cross-referencing with easily navigable bold-faced textual links to core entries. In addition to distances themselves, the authors have collated numerous fascinating curiosities in their Who’s Who of metrics, including distance-related notions and paradigms that enable applied mathematicians in other sectors to deploy research tools that non-specialists justly view as arcane. In expanding access to these techniques, and in many cases enriching the context of distances themselves, this peerless volume is certain to stimulate fresh research.

Ransomed for $149 (US) per digital copy, this remarkable work that should have a broad readership.

From the introduction to the 2009 edition:


Distance metrics and distances have now become an essential tool in many areas of Mathematics and its applications including Geometry, Probability, Statistics, Coding/Graph Theory, Clustering, Data Analysis, Pattern Recognition, Networks, Engineering, Computer Graphics/Vision, Astronomy, Cosmology, Molecular Biology, and many other areas of science. Devising the most suitable distance metrics and similarities, to quantify the proximity between objects, has become a standard task for many researchers. Especially intense ongoing search for such distances occurs, for example, in Computational Biology, Image Analysis, Speech Recognition, and Information Retrieval.

Often the same distance metric appears independently in several different areas; for example, the edit distance between words, the evolutionary distance in Biology, the Levenstein distance in Coding Theory, and the Hamming+Gap or shuffle-Hamming distance.

(emphasis added)

I highlighted that last sentence to emphasize that Encyclopedia of Distances is a static and undisclosed topic map.

While readers familiar with the concepts:

edit distance between words, the evolutionary distance in Biology, the Levenstein distance in Coding Theory, and the Hamming+Gap or shuffle-Hamming distance.

could enumerate why those merit being spoken of as being “the same distance metric,” no indexing program can accomplish the same feat.

If each of those concepts had enumerated properties, which could be compared by an indexing program, readers could not only discover those “same distance metrics” but could also discover new rediscoveries of that same metric.

As it stands, readers must rely upon the undisclosed judgments of the Deza’s and hope they continue to revise and extend this work.

When they cease to do so, successive editors will be forced to re-acquire the basis for adding new/re-discovered metrics to it.

PS: Suggestions of similar titles that deal with non-metric distances? I’m familiar with works that impose metrics on non-metric distances but that’s not what I have in mind. That’s an arbitrary and opaque mapping from non-metric to metric.

August 26, 2012

Metric Spaces — A Primer [Semantic Metrics?]

Filed under: Distance,Metric Spaces,Semantics — Patrick Durusau @ 1:45 pm

Metric Spaces — A Primer by Jeremy Kun.

The Blessing of Distance

We have often mentioned the idea of a “metric” on this blog, and we briefly described a formal definition for it. Colloquially, a metric is simply the mathematical notion of a distance function, with certain well-behaved properties. Since we’re now starting to cover a few more metrics (and things which are distinctly not metrics) in the context of machine learning algorithms, we find it pertinent to lay out the definition once again, discuss some implications, and explore a few basic examples.

The most important thing to take away from this discussion is that not all spaces have a notion of distance. For a space to have a metric is a strong property with far-reaching mathematical consequences. Essentially, metrics impose a topology on a space, which the reader can think of as the contortionist’s flavor of geometry. We’ll explore this idea after a few examples.

On the other hand, from a practical standpoint one can still do interesting things without a true metric. The downside is that work relying on (the various kinds of) non-metrics doesn’t benefit as greatly from existing mathematics. This can often spiral into empirical evaluation, where justifications and quantitative guarantees are not to be found.

An enjoyable introduction to metric spaces.

Absolutely necessary for machine learning and computational tasks.

However, I am mindful that the mapping from semantics to a location in metric space is an arbitrary one. Our evaluations of metrics assigned to any semantic, are wholly dependent upon that mapping.

Not that we can escape that trap but to urge caution when claims are made on the basis of arbitrarily assigned metric locations. (A small voice should be asking: What if we change the assigned metric locations? What result then?)

August 12, 2012

Measuring similarity and distance function

Filed under: Distance,Similarity — Patrick Durusau @ 4:42 pm

Measuring similarity and distance function by Ricky Ho.

Ricky covers:

  • Distance between numeric data points
  • Distance between categorical data points
  • Distance between mixed categorical and numeric data points
  • Distance between sequence (String, TimeSeries)
  • Distance between nodes in a network
  • Distance between population distribution

Not every measure or function but enough to get you started.

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