Authors:
Wenjun Ma
;
Jieyu Zhan
and
Yuncheng Jiang
Affiliation:
Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Big Data and Intelligent Education, School of Computer Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
Keyword(s):
D-S Theory of Evidence, Conflict Management, Essential Conflict, Information Fusion.
Abstract:
Dempster’s combination rule in Dempster-Shafer (D-S) theory is widely used in data mining, machine learning, clustering and database systems. In these applications, the counter-intuitive result is often obtained with this rule when the combination of mass function is performed without checking whether original beliefs are in conflict. In this paper, a new type of conflict called essential conflict has been revealed with two characteristics: (i) it is an essential factor that leading to the counter-intuitive result by turning a possible state into a necessary true state or an impossible state; (ii) it cannot be corrected by the combination process of any new mass functions. After showing that the existing conflict measurements in D-S theory have the limitations to address the essential conflict and presenting a formalism about the concept of essential conflict, we propose a measurement of essential conflict between two mass functions based on the mass value and the intersection relati
on of their focal elements. We argue that if there exists a focal element of one mass function, such that the intersection of it and any focal element of another mass function is an empty set, then the essential conflict is caused and Dempster’s combination rule is not applicable.
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