Belief functions and cluster ensembles

Abstract

In this paper, belief functions, defined on the lattice of partitions of a set of objects, are investigated as a suitable framework for combining multiple clusterings. We first show how to represent clustering results as masses of evidence allocated to partitions. Then a consensus belief function is obtained using a suitable combination rule. Tools for synthesizing the results are also proposed. The approach is illustrated using two data sets. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.