Toward a Formal Framework for Comparing KD Techniques

Various knowledge discovery techniques are readily available and many new ones are currently being developed. However, there is no clear understanding of how these techniques compare. This study provides means for the challenging task of analytically comparing knowledge discovery techniques. These means comprise: the notions of applicability, complexity and accuracy of a technique with respect to a problem. We introduce various techniques and problems and derive concrete comparison results. 1 Introduction Knowledge discovery techniques are used to search for relationships and global patterns that exists in large databases but are "hidden" among vast amounts of data. Next generation information systems will incorporate knowledge discovery techniques. Even though various knowledge discovery techniques are readily available and many new techniques are currently being developed, there is no understanding of how these techniques compare. The aim of this study is to define precise notions s..