Intrinsic dimension estimation via nearest constrained subspace classifier

We consider the problems of classification and intrinsic dimension estimation on image data. A new subspace based classifier is proposed for supervised classification or intrinsic dimension estimation. The distribution of the data in each class is modeled by a union of a finite number of affine subspaces of the feature space. The affine subspaces have a common dimension, which is assumed to be much less than the dimension of the feature space. The subspaces are found using regression based on the ℓ₀-norm. The proposed method is a generalisation of classical NN (Nearest Neighbor), NFL (Nearest Feature Line) classifiers and has a close relationship to NS (Nearest Subspace) classifier. The proposed classifier with an accurately estimated dimension parameter generally outperforms its competitors in terms of classification accuracy. We also propose a fast version of the classifier using a neighborhood representation to reduce its computational complexity. Experiments on publicly available datasets corroborate these claims.