Some Equivalences between Kernel Methods and Information Theoretic Methods

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss some equivalences between two recently introduced statistical learning schemes, namely Mercer kernel methods and information theoretic methods. We show that Parzen window-based estimators for some information theoretic cost functions are also cost functions in a corresponding Mercer kernel space. The Mercer kernel is directly related to the Parzen window. Furthermore, we analyze a classification rule based on an information theoretic criterion, and show that this corresponds to a linear classifier in the kernel space. By introducing a weighted Parzen window density estimator, we also formulate the support vector machine in this information theoretic perspective.