Fisher Information Metric

In information geometry, the Fisher information metric is a particular Riemannian metric which can be defined on a smooth statistical manifold, i.e., a smooth manifold whose points are probability measures defined on a common probability space. It can be used to calculate the informational difference between measurements.

The metric is interesting in several respects. First, it can be understood to be the infinitesimal form of the relative entropy or Kullback–Leibler divergence; specifically, it is the Hessian of the divergence. Alternately, it can be understood as the metric induced by the flat space Euclidean metric, after appropriate changes of variable. When extended to complex projective Hilbert space, it becomes the Fubini–Study metric; when written in terms of mixed states, it is the quantum Bures metric.

Considered purely as a matrix, it is known as the Fisher information matrix. Considered as a measurement technique, where it is used to estimate hidden parameters in terms of observed random variables, it is known as the observed information (this is wrong: it is the expected information; the observed information is not a function of the parameters).

Read more about Fisher Information Metric:  Definition, Relation To The Kullback–Leibler Divergence, Relation To Ruppeiner Geometry, Change in Entropy, Relation To The Jensen–Shannon Divergence, As Euclidean Metric, As Fubini–Study Metric, Formal Definition

Famous quotes containing the words fisher and/or information:

    Our family talked a lot at table, and only two subjects were taboo: politics and personal troubles. The first was sternly avoided because Father ran a nonpartisan daily in a small town, with some success, and did not wish to express his own opinions in public, even when in private.
    —M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)

    So while it is true that children are exposed to more information and a greater variety of experiences than were children of the past, it does not follow that they automatically become more sophisticated. We always know much more than we understand, and with the torrent of information to which young people are exposed, the gap between knowing and understanding, between experience and learning, has become even greater than it was in the past.
    David Elkind (20th century)