A Fixed point view: A Model-Based Clustering Framework

Abstract: With the inflation of the data, clustering analysis, as a branch of unsupervised learning, lacks unified understanding and application of its mathematical law. Based on the view of fixed point, this paper restates the model-based clustering and proposes a unified clustering framework. In order to find fixed points as cluster centers, the framework iteratively constructs the contraction map, which strongly reveals the convergence mechanism and interconnections among algorithms. By specifying a contraction map, Gaussian mixture model (GMM) can be mapped to the framework as an application. We hope the fixed point framework will help the design of future clustering algorithms.