STAT 6560: Handwritten Digits Scanned from the ZIP codes - Statistics Assignment

Internal Code: MAS6191

Statistics Assignment:

(a) Perform Fisher’s linear discriminant analysis on the combined training data (data.train), using all the variables with sufficient variation. See the R code for subsetting those variables with sufficiently large standard deviations. There are, in fact, 18 pixels (or variables) with zero variation in the data and we should not use those variables for discrimination. Visualize the coefficient vector of the linear discriminant as an image and compare it with the principal component directions obtained in 1(c). Evaluate the linear discriminant rule in terms of the apparent error rate and test error rate (error rate over the test data, data.test). (b) Alternatively, perform Fisher’s linear discriminant analysis on the combined training data, using the first two principal components from 1(c) as predictors. Compare the two classification rules in parts (a) and (b) in terms of the apparent error rate and test error rate. Does the addition of subsequent principal components as predictors seem to improve classification accuracy?