Multivariate Binary Discrimination by the Kernel Method

An extension of the kernel method of density estimation from continuous to multivariate binary spaces is described. Its simple nonparametric nature together with its consistency properties make it an attractive tool in discrimination problems, with some advantages over already proposed parametric counterparts. The method is illustrated by an application to a particular medical diagnostic problem. Simple extensions of the method to categorical data and to data of mixed binary and continuous form are indicated.