La métrica de Mahalanobis

Abstract

This document is a study regarding the Mahalanobis distance and some applications of it. A review of the literature is carried out to show an outline of the life and work of this scientist, highlighting the important moments in the life of this researcher (historical context). The distance and examples are contemplated that allow the reader to be introduced to the subject, this based on some mathematical preliminaries to which to go to understand the concepts to be dealt with. Its properties are analyzed by which it stands out and is used in applications in different sciences and disciplines. A series of application examples are provided to illustrate Mahalanobis contributions to different areas of knowledge. The importance of their finding at present is highlighted. One of the applications is an approach to pattern recognition (facial), using the Matlab language for its execution. It is concluded that the statistical approach of this intellectual has, at present, made it possible to use his distance to solve problems in which he seeks to know not only the distance between the variables, but their correlation, overcoming the limitations of Euclidean distance.