In accordance with our invention, for two mixture-type probability distribution
functions (PDF's), G, H,
##EQU1##
where G is a mixture of N component PDF's gi (x), H is a mixture
of K component PDF's hk (x), i and k are
corresponding weights that satisfy
##EQU2##
we define their distance, DM(G, H), as
##EQU3##
where d(gI, hk is the element distance between component
PDF's gi and hk and w satisfie
ik0, 1iN, 1kK;
and
##EQU4##
The application of this definition of distance to various sets of real world
data is demonstrated.