How To: Pattern Recognition

Question

I\'m interested in learning more about pattern recognition. I know that\'s somewhat of a broad field, so I\'ll list some specific types of problems I would like to learn to dea

Answer 1

Beware false patterns! For any decently large data set you will find subsets that appear to have pattern, even if it is a data set of coin flips. No good process for pattern recognition should be without statistical techniques to assess confidence that the detected patterns are real. When possible, run your algorithms on random data to see what patterns they detect. These experiments will give you a baseline for the strength of a pattern that can be found in random (a.k.a "null") data. This kind of technique can help you assess the "false discovery rate" for your findings.