Kernel K-means clustering of distributional data

Abstract: We consider the problem of clustering a sample of probability distributions from a random distribution on $\mathbb R^p$. Our proposed partitioning method makes use of a symmetric, positive-definite kernel $k$ and its associated reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) $\mathcal H$. By mapping each distribution to its corresponding kernel mean embedding in $\mathcal H$, we obtain a sample in this RKHS where we carry out the $K$-means clustering procedure, which provides an unsupervised classification of the original sample. The procedure is simple and computationally feasible even for dimension $p>1$. The simulation studies provide insight into the choice of the kernel and its tuning parameter. The performance of the proposed clustering procedure is illustrated on a collection of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images.