Evaluation of Classifiers Principle

Basic principles of probability theory and information theory are used in the next Chapters to define objective criteria for the evaluation of classifiers. All considerations are restricted to binary classifiers but most concepts can be easily extended to multicategory problems. 

Many objections against the usefulness of pattern recognition methods for chemical problems are legitimated because the statistical evaluation was performed unsatisfactorily in many papers. Further confusions result from a non-uniform terminology (Chapter 11.5). An objective mathematical evaluation of classifiers is an absolute necessary prerequisite to a further application to actual classification problems. 

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